


Worth Fighting For

by pkmntrainer_alex



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Animal Death, Arranged Marriage, Attempted Murder, BDSM, Biting, Blackmail, Choking, Daddy Kink, Dark Past, Deviates From Canon, Dissociation, Dubious Ethics, Dubious Morality, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, Female Friendship, For Science!, Forced Orgasm, Gen, Major Original Character(s), Murder, Occult, Oral Sex, Original Character(s), Other: See Story Notes, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Power Imbalance, Psychic Abilities, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, Stabbing, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Tsunderes, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:48:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 38
Words: 187,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22618924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pkmntrainer_alex/pseuds/pkmntrainer_alex
Summary: A princess in the North Blue tries to wiggle out of a marriage arrangement to Prince Ichiji of Germa. Things don't necessarily go as planned.
Relationships: Vinsmoke Ichiji/Original Female Character(s), Vinsmoke Niji/Original Female Character, Vinsmoke Yonji/Original Female Character
Comments: 28
Kudos: 51





	1. ASPEN I

**Author's Note:**

> OK few quick things ~  
> \- I've never ever used any of this before, forgive me my trespasses  
> -There's a lot of OCs and world-building that happens before normal characters show up, I pulled a fake kingdom and island out of my ass and that was a struggle  
> -I will warn you ahead of time if there's crazy shit in a chapter but all the tags apply to the story overall not this first chapter specifically  
> -Please give me all constructive criticisms. I haven't written in y e a r s  
> -If anyone has any suggested tags feel free to let me know because again, not sure how to use this yet  
> -Please do not repost or use this work on another site without my knowledge or consent
> 
> THANK

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Aspen is the first POV person, there will be 4 total and they will cycle in order  
> \- A LOT OF WORLD-BUILDING IS GONNA HAPPEN in like the next 4 chapters but things pick up quickly enough that I'm hoping everyone can just...bear with me here...  
> \- One Piece has featured people with weird abilities that aren't tied to devil fruit so that is what I had in mind for Aspen
> 
> EDIT 2/13  
> \- fixed misspelling of Sophie/Sofi

“You fucked Stitch, your highness?”

“Yes.” Was it really a lie?

Priya, one of Aspen’s personal guard, gazed down at the naked princess with a weary and irritated expression, her mouth set into a thin line. Beside her stood Anja, dark-haired and gentle, the very antithesis of Priya. Aspen was loathe to have to deal with either of her guards. “You were meant to try on your new dresses, not treat the tailor. Have some respect for yourself as a royal.”

Princess Aspen Frostbane, sovereign of all Hoarfrost, the largest kingdom in the North Blue, stayed upside-down, half on her bed, face bleeding from where her snow cat, Jack, has slashed her right over her eye. Her black hair, wild enough in a normal sitting position, had all flopped downward, looking like a mop. She hadn’t had the chance to get fully dressed again after her tailor had left, and the oversized sweater she’d thrown on had rode up too - not that Priya and Anja hadn’t seen her breasts before. “I appreciate the input that literally nobody asked for.”

“Now, Priya,” Anja set a black-gloved hand on Priya’s shoulder gently, looking down at her princess. “It’s the age. We were all young and misguided once.”

“You’re both 23, you’re only 5 goddamn years older than me.” Aspen tried to untangle herself from the thick, cream-colored blankets wrapped about her legs, and fell hard directly onto her head. At least the impact took away from the hot, stinging pain in her face. 

Priya ran a hand over her snowy white finger waves, likely feeling for any out of place strands. She wouldn’t find any - Aspen knew that - and if she did, she would likely leave immediately to completely redo her hair. “I think this may well be a new level of sad for you.”

“I do wish I could take a photo of this,” Anja giggled, “I’ve never seen Jack get the drop on you like this.” She reached a hand into the stiff, clean pocket of her guard uniform, fishing a small purple bottle out of her pocket. “Lucky you. This is straight from the Royal Research Facility. Wintergreen has said it’s not even available for purchase in the kingdom yet.”

Aspen could feel the blood finding its way into her eyes, making her already irritatingly thick eyelashes stick together and her vision blur. She dragged an open palm over the wound, succeeding only in making things worse as her eye watered up more and the gashes stung.

“Stop touching it with your dirty hand. It already looks _quite_ unpleasant and probably doesn’t need to get infected by you getting dick sweat all over it.”

“I do NOT have dick sweat on my hands.”

“Fine. Ball sweat. Whatever.” Priya pulled a small cloth from her breast pocket, a deep shade of red like the dress Stitch had brought her to try on. Aspen had to concede that the color was quite nice with the bright white of the guard uniforms. Much of Hoarfrost Kingdom’s official dress was white, grey, and silver. Quite boring. 

Anja opened the tiny bottle before extending it to Priya, gripping it tightly between her thumb and forefinger. “The ointment.”

“Ah, thank you.” Priya pressed the bottle’s mouth against the red cloth and gave it a small squeeze. Aspen watched the fabric darken with her one good eye, smelling a strong astringent odor. Reaching for Aspen, Priya zeroed in tightly on the open, still-bleeding gashes above and across her eye. “Close your eyes and try not to move.”

“Please try not to get it _in_ my eye,” Aspen grumbled, closing the injured eye while trying to keep the other one open. She didn’t trust either of those shady bastards to not try to snap a photo while she wasn’t looking. “I feel like this is going to burn.”

Sure enough, right on contact, Aspen’s skin felt like it was on fire. Instinctively, she began to cringe away from Priya’s hand.

“Don’t fucking move!” Priya barked, pressing it tightly to Aspen’s skin as she slowly slid it over the diagonal length of the scratches. 

Aspen froze in mid-recoil, despite her skin from forehead to cheekbone feeling searing hot and uncomfortable. 

Priya gently lifted the cloth away, glancing at Aspen’s face critically. Aspen touched where the open wounds had been only moments before and could feel only thin, tight divots of scar tissue. “Small scars,” Priya observed, handing the bottle to Anja, who re-capped it and put it back in her pocket. “Minimal. They’re likely to fade as well. You’ll be fine.”

“They may also turn out more pronounced later, though,” Anja added in, sitting up on Aspen’s bed, the frame so high even she struggled slightly to get up. Her long, dark grey hair hung over her shoulder in a neat and polished braid, the perfect compliment to Priya’s pale finger waves. “Wintergreen has told me this is all pretty much still in the experimental phase...she said Nexus is still sneaking her home the medical aids that are going to be pushed through and approved soon anyway.”

Priya sat beside Anja, her massive height letting her onto the edge of the bed with no problem at all. Her dark, warm skin was a contrast to Anja’s cool, pale tones. Aspen had thought they were much like yin and yang. She narrowed her eyes. “Why did Jack scratch you _this_ time?”

Aspen slowly sat up, shaking her hair back down and pulling a discarded blanket over herself over her still-bare lower half. She drew her knees to her chin. “I had the absolute _nerve_ to flop onto my own bed and accidentally landed on him. He was under the blankets. I didn’t see him.” Jack was, unfortunately, the same white color as her bed sheets - though the issue this time had been his tendency to burrow into the blankets like a cave. 

“Hmm.” Anja twirled her braid around a hand, looking around at the exceptionally large, luxurious space afford to the princess for a bedroom. At twice the size of the average palace staffer’s apartment, there was more than enough space for an angry snow cat to hide. Her eyes rested on the open bathroom door. “I’ll assume he’s in _there_. Must be very angry at you if he hasn’t come back yet.”

“That crabby asshole is in there somewhere, I’m certain.” Aspen’s bathroom was half the size of her bedroom, all overkill and one of the only royal perks she indulged in regularly. Featuring in-floor tubs, rain-style showers, and fountains, it was one of her favorite places in the palace. Jack’s too. He was particularly fond of hiding at the bottom of an empty tub or behind a fountain, and waiting to ambush the first person to walk past. Sometimes it was Sofi, when Sofi was home, but more often than not it was Aspen.

“It certainly sounds like you’re having a wonderful day,” Priya commented dryly. She folded her arms and looked around the room as well. She looked past heavily-laden bookshelves, a messy desk, piles of laundry, and Aspen saw her lock right onto the windows at the far end of the room. The floor to ceiling windows afforded a look over the busiest part of the capital, Snøvanger, all the way clear to the harbor. All night and all day, ships ranging from merchants to pirates were coming and going. Aspen would waste hours watching while she played her violin, seeing if she could recognize any of the jolly rogers. 

On this particular day, every single pane in the set of massive windows was cracked.

Aspen took a deep breath. “I can explain -”

Priya pointed at the windows. Anja looked as well, and raised her hands to her mouth. “Your handiwork.” A statement, not a question.

“Yes, but -”

“Unacceptable.”

“I know, but -”

“Is this over your birthday?” Anja quickly joined in, speaking in calm, soothing tones as she rested a hand on Priya’s thigh. “I thought you considered yourself well-prepared for finally being able to rule the kingdom of your own volition. Do you not feel ready?”

It had, of course, fuckall to do with her birthday and the impending full weight of her crown. Princess Aspen would, of course, still be a _princess_ on her 19th birthday - due to an older amendment from the Kingdom Council that permitted male sovereigns be kings but the females could only ever be princesses - but she would be free to rule without a regent. Nexus - the current regent and head of the Royal Research Facility - was practically jumping for joy at the very thought. Sometimes it just _happened_. It’s not as though Aspen had other espers to confer with regarding her ‘highly unusual’ gifts. “Well, honestly, I -”

“It doesn’t matter.” Priya’s lips pursed into a thin, tight line, the white lipstick she wore to match her hair vanishing into her mouth. “You can’t hit pause on a birthday. Not to mention invitations were distributed all over the kingdom. There’ll be dukes and duchesses, all the heads of industry, university heads. It would be bad form to cancel the party now.”

Aspen waved a hand irritably, feeling every bit her small size as Priya and Anja stared down at her. “Who’s been invite -”

“Priya,” Aspen saw Anja squeeze Priya’s thigh gently, gloved fingertips pressing into the pressed white fabric. “It’s still a big deal. It would make full and complete sense to feel intimidated and unprepared at the thought of bearing the full weight of the kingdom.” She gave Aspen what she likely thought was a kind, reassuring smile.

Groaning, Aspen scrunched her hands against her eyes. “ _This is fucking exhausting_ ,” she thought to herself. 

“Yes, Anja, but being stressed over this is not a good enough reason to loosen control over her royal highness’s….special ability.” Aspen felt it a bit rich for Priya to speak of her psychic ability with that sort of sniffing tone when _she_ could turn into a fucking spider - which was way, way more unsettling. 

“I never said that I -”

“Well, we must look on the bright side of things,” Anja’s smile tightened precipitously, which Aspen recognized as the sign that she was going to say something nobody wanted to hear. “At least it’s the guest list for your party is strictly Hoarfrostian in nature.”

Aspen wrapped her arms around her legs, turning her head sideways to set it atop her knees. “Oh.” She had, of course, wanted Vivi to come - but the updates from Alabasta were worse and worse. Perhaps another time.

“So, at this particular juncture, we’ll be spared a visit from the Vinsmoke family of Germa, as well.”

Priya looked as though she could strangle Anja.

Aspen stood up. “Leave.”

“It’s a good thing! A good thing!” Anja held up both hands and looked nervously from Priya to Aspen. “I know the idea of having to see them any sooner than need be torments you so -”

“GET OUT.” Aspen could feel her head beginning to throb. The less that name was mentioned in her presence, the better. Both Priya and Anja stood, turning quickly to the door, wrenching it open in a hurry.

“Perhaps it’s good that they won’t come,” Priya challenged, locking amethyst-toned eyes on Aspen’s furious green ones. “If you are struggling so much to reign in your ‘gift.’ Your future husband doesn’t need to see that. Remember how you destroyed the council’s meeting room -”

“I will destroy so much more if you both don’t leave right now,” Aspen promised.

To punctuate her point, the already-fragmented glass in the windows began to vibrate and jerk, sending cracks further through their form.

They left without another word, leaving the door ajar. Aspen listened for the muffled sound of their boots on the hallway carpet to ensure they were truly heading back into the palace before slamming the door shut, locking both the knob’s built in lock and the heavier silver chain lock. She did not need further visitors. 

She jumped up onto her bed, resting her aching head on soft pillows. They still smelled like Stitch’s cologne, all musk and spice. He’d only needed to have her try on the dress for her birthday party - a _red_ dress, an uncommon color for Aspen, who preferred grey and blue. It hadn’t taken much for Aspen to lure him into her bed. 

Not that he would fuck her, no - he never would. “All apologies, your highness,” Stitch had chuckled, his fingers weaving through her hair. “But if your betrothed were to find out, I’d be a smoldering pile of ash. And I don’t like the sound of that.”

There was a rumbling purr, and Aspen felt something walking at her feet, silky-soft fur brushing against her ankles.

“Jack.” Aspen stretched a hand out, and a large, fuzzy white head pressed hard into scratching fingers, angling them behind his ears. “Are you done being a fucking asshole?”

He walked closer to her head, stretching out over the top of her head like a hairy crown, yanking on her hair as he vibrated with purring. Jack flapped his paws into her face. Aspen pushed them away distractedly as she stared up at the ceiling.

“‘My future husband,’” Aspen mumbled, silently seething. “A lot of nerve calling him that. They should all know I have no intention of marrying him.”

Jack pushed his paws back into Aspen’s face insistently. Aspen tried to scoot down, out of range, and he flexed his claws against her skin in a gentle threat. 

“I’m fine with being in charge of the whole kingdom,” Aspen insisted to Jack, who began kneading into her hair. “I have some changes I’ve waited years to make. I’m keeping Nexus on as my primary adviser. It’s not like I’m going to assume control and suddenly we’re the worst run kingdom in the North Blue.”

Jack licked at her head, his tongue instantly overcome by strands of black.

“My father always said, my role is _to_ serve, not _be_ served.” She yanked her hair out of Jack’s mouth, narrowly avoiding another swipe of his claws and she pulled it away. “‘You serve the kingdom and its people, from Snøvanger to Neigebelle. None are obligated to serve _you_ but be a good princess - a just princess - and they will.’”

She could still remember one of the times he’d counseled such advice. She’d been six, and though she was no longer the sickly baby she’d once been, she was still considered ‘runty’ by the palace staff and Hoarfrost council - but ‘full of your mother’s fire,’ her father had liked to tell her. Back when she still wore the pretty dresses, played with dolls, took her courtesies seriously, and tried to be the pleasant, agreeable princess she thought they wanted. “ _How exceedingly dumb of me_ ,” she thought to herself.

Her father had come to her in her room - the same room she had now - and had caught her scaling one of the massive bookshelves that held all the storybooks and picture books she’d been gifted up to that point. Each of the bookshelves had been constructed of the strongest wood found on the island, and supported her weight easily. She’d heard staff members saying how the view from her windows was the finest in the whole palace, and how you could see from Snøvanger’s center of commerce clear to the harbor. Aspen had been still far too small to see.

But from the top shelf…

“Aspen.” Her father’s voice from the doorway had stopped her mid-climb. Gentle, but firm. He had rarely ever needed to raise his voice at his only child. “What are you doing?”

She’d been a third of the way up, a pile of books she’d accidentally knocked loose accumulating in a large pile on the floor below. Her knee-length dress had been rolled up to her waist to leave her legs free for easier scaling. “Uh…” She tried to come up with a good excuse as she held onto a shelf, one foot planted below and another resting on the edge of one above.

Walrin Frostbane smiled at his decidedly un-princess like daughter and waved her down. “Come. I have something for you.”

Aspen let go of the shelf and jumped down quickly, her already long black hair flying behind her like a shadow. She’d landed on her feet on the pile of books, only for the pile to immediately collapse beneath her, the slick covers shooting off in every direction. Aspen tumbled backwards and landed, hard, on her copy of _Noland the Liar_.

She blinked and looked up, and saw her father standing above her, a towering might of a man in the pressed grey and black military uniform of the kingdom’s top military generals. The staff in the palace household had said that only Judge Vinsmoke of Germa was a like height to the king.

Aspen grinned, stretching her arms up. “Pappa.”

Most of Walrin’s face was hidden behind a close-cropped beard, the same jet black as his daughter’s unruly hair, but Aspen could see a smile on his lips and in his bright green eyes - eyes that, too, had been perfectly copied in her. “I have something for you.”

He lowered himself to his knees, and Aspen could see something wriggling in the front pockets of his jacket that usually laid flat. She sat up excitedly, yanking her dress back down and grabbing onto his knee. She pulled herself towards the movement in his pocket, stretching out a tiny, grubby hand. “A present? Can I see?”

“Hold on.” Walrin held up a hand that was larger than her head. Aspen let go of his knee and looked up at her father’s face, tilting her head curiously. “First, you must promise me that you won’t do _that_ again.” He nodded at the bookshelf she had been climbing. “Do you know why?”

Aspen nodded slowly. “Because...I might break it.” It seemed like a safe bet; that was the reason she wasn’t allowed to do a lot of things in Snøvanger Palace.

“Because it might break _you_ .” Walrin gently corrected his daughter with a warm smile that made his eyes twinkle. “These shelves could absolutely hurt you if one were to fall. I wouldn’t worry at all if I thought it was only that _you_ might break _it_. There are so many of this exact bookshelf in the palace alone.” He scooped Aspen up, holding her tightly against him. “But I only have one of you. There will only ever be one Aspen Frostbane.”

Something in her father’s voice sounded funny, and Aspen felt certain she was missing _something_. She wrapped her small arms around his head. “And...I can’t die because I gotta be here to be in charge when I’m grown-up?”

“There is more to you than your future on the throne.” He kissed her cheek, his whiskers tickling her face, and he set her back down again.

“Do you think I’ll be an even better princess when I’m big and in charge?” Aspen queried, reaching for the still-moving pocket on her father’s coat.

“Sweetest love, you will never be big. But I do believe this.” He lightly batted his daughter’s hand away. “Just always keep this in mind - your role is _to_ serve, not _be_ served.”

Aspen didn’t understand. “If that’s true...why do we have staff that serve us?”

Walrin pressed a massive finger to her lips. “You serve the kingdom and its people, from Snøvanger to Neigebelle. None are obligated to serve _you_ but be a good princess -”

“Was mommy a good princess?” Aspen interrupted

“A just princess,” Walrin continued, ignoring his daughter’s poor attention span. “And they will.”

“Was mommy a good princess?” Aspen repeated. “I don’t remember.”

“Good, and just.” Aspen thought her father’s eyes looked exceptionally bright and shiny at the mention of her mother. “You’re too young to remember. Now, close your eyes.”

Aspen squeezed her eyes shut as tight as she could, but they stung with the desire to spring right back open.

“Hands to eyes.”

Aspen let out a loud, dramatic sigh, but put her hands over her eyes anyway.

There was a brief rustling of fabric. “You may open your eyes now.”

She all but threw her hands to the size, eager for her present. In her father’s cupped hands, he held a soft ball of snow white fur. It was wiggling around on unsteady legs, and Aspen could see wide, bright blue eyes and triangular ears.

“His name,” Walrin said, smiling at Aspen’s screeches of happiness. “Is Jack.”

“Huh.” Aspen hadn’t realized she had started crying. Jack, far larger and lazier now, licked the tears away with a rough tongue. “I still miss him.”

She’d had her father for two more years after that, two years of his love and protection. He hadn’t even been gone a mouth when the council had sweet-talked her into signing a paper she didn’t understand, promising her to a husband once she turned 21. It was the same paper her father had thrown multiple copies of into fireplace after fireplace when he’d been alive, roaring with disgust at the _nerve_ of Judge Vinsmoke.

“Marry my only daughter to one of those monsters he calls sons?” Aspen had heard her father shout at the Hoarfrost council through closed doors. It was one of the only times she’d heard him yell, ever. “Over my dead body.”

The council had acquiesced. Apparently, Aspen had heard, the deal had been far too sweet to turn down. As many soldiers as the kingdom needed _and_ Aspen would have the firstborn son. Her father had been gone scarcely a month and Aspen had been sold into a marriage he had spent her whole life swatting into the flames. 

“Being in charge of the kingdom isn’t what the issue is,” Aspen asserted firmly to Jack, wiping away the tears that remained. She loathed crying. “My future in-laws are.”

Jack yowled at her as she sat up, clawing at her hair. 

“I have a little more than two years to find a way out of this.” Aspen turned her head to look at her disused desk, stacked with papers, books, and clothes she had been too lazy to put away. Somewhere in its many drawers was a copy of the contract, highlighted, dog-eared, and analyzed to death. The language in the contract was ‘as airtight as a nun’s cunt,’ as Mace, one of the palace guard captains, would have said. “Not that I’ve had any luck so far.”

Jack rolled onto his back, showcasing the trap that was his belly.

“I hear he and his brothers are military commanders in their kingdom,” Aspen explained to Jack, as though he could help. The thought made her perk up slightly. “So there’s _always_ a chance he’ll die a horrible, agonizing death in battle and _I will be free_.”

She heard what sounded like footsteps heading towards her door. Aspen stiffened, readying herself to yell at whoever would knock. _“Why can’t they just fuck off for a bit?_ ” She thought, still irritated. After a few moments, she heard no further footsteps, and she took a breath again.

“Can’t really deal with any more human interaction today.” She moved away from her bed to the broken windows, bending down to pick her violin and bow off the low table where she’d set them earlier. She could feel freezing cold wind seeping in through all the cracks as snow swirled at the windows. It was almost thick enough that she couldn’t see the shining lights of the capital. “What do you feel this evening, Jack? A sonata? I know Sofi isn’t here so there’ll be no piano.”

Another loud, attention-seeking yowl from the bed. 

“I’ll play.” Aspen rested her jaw against the instrument, lifting her bow. “And you help me find a way out of this marriage.”


	2. NEXUS I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes!
> 
> \- still primarily OCs, but you'll get a feel for the non-OC characters that are gonna show up  
> \- I have a lot of world building left to do  
> \- there will be 4 primary POV characters, all OCs.  
> \- again literally any constructive feedback is welcome and I'm grateful. 
> 
> EDIT 2/13  
> \- fixing the misspelling of Sofi's name
> 
> Thanks for reading!

Nexus poured himself the strongest cup of tea he could find as he sat in his cramped office, reviewing the most recent report from his lab at the Royal Research Facility. The sun had long since gone down, and his office was lit only by an ancient desk lamp. He’d been so busy lately, even busier than normal - he wondered if his wife would recognize him if he walked through the door at their shared apartment in the palace. It had been weeks since he’d gotten back to his lab, and it was driving him  _ insane _ . Of course a thousand different responsibilities had collided right as his life’s work was reaching a crucial juncture. Of  _ course _ . 

It looked as though the last couple tests had been fruitful, creeping towards outright success, which Nexus had not dreamed of achieving until old age. 15 years Nexus had been in Hoarfrost, balancing royal duties with his research and development. 15 years of back to the goddamn drawing board. 

He set the brilliantly silver teacup, decorated with snowflake designs, on one of the singular bare patches of desktop left. In his absence, the desk had become home to intimidating towers of paperwork. Ignoring it all, he read the first page of the most recent report.

“Reconstruction in the neural pathways of the test subjects,” his assistant had written. “Atrophied sections in the amygdala showing signs of reconstruction. Proper emotional response to stimuli evident.”

After all this time he was so, so close to keeping his word. His blue eyes, tired and half-open behind his reading glasses, moved to the only other bare section of the desktop, home to a framed photo. It was almost completely obscured by paperwork. 10-year-old Nexus beamed out at his older self, his arm around a young girl the exact same age. They shared the same blonde hair, the same smile, but her eyes were an even brighter blue than his.

There was a knock at the door.

“Yes?” Nexus didn’t look away from his work, quickly tucking the report into an empty drawer. Someone dropped into the chair opposite him, hidden by paper. 

“Nexus.” He heard the voice of Anja Bohler, one of Aspen’s personal guards, from the other side of the paperwork mountains. “Did you speak to the princess?”

“Ah. Aspen.”  _ His other life’s work _ . “I thought you’d stopped by her room after Priyanka and I had left. Right? Seeing as there’s nothing else in the northern wing.”

Nexus leaned back in his hair, looking up at the broken light fixture he’d forgotten for months to have fixed. “That was my plan, yes.” He took his glasses off and examined the lenses in the light of the desk lamp. How were they  _ perpetually _ caked in greasy fingerprints?

“And?” He could hear Anja loudly undoing her braid, listening to the elastic stretch and snap. It was a nervous habit she’d nursed since Aspen had brought her own ten years before.

“ _ Stop that _ . And...nothing.” He took his cleaning cloth out of his pocket and wiped at his glasses, succeeding only in making it much worse. “I didn’t go in. Listened for a bit to her playing violin and talking to Jack about things I already knew.”

“Such as?” Anja shoved stacks of paperwork out of the way to better see Nexus, sending most of it tumbling to the floor - which was also covered in stacks of paperwork. Her round face was shadowy with concern, and she was shaking her tight braid loose. 

He held up a finger. “One - she misses her father still, terribly.”

The concern in Anja’s face intensified. “Poor thing.”

Nexus held up a second finger. “Two - she’s fantasizing about Ichiji Vinsmoke -”

“ _ Oh? _ ” Anja raised an eyebrow.

“ - Dying in all sorts of gory, violent ways. To get out of the  _ arrangement _ ,” he spat the last word out with an especially bitter taste. Though he had been regent since the death of her father, that marriage arrangement had not been his idea. “Though I must admire your optimism in hoping her fantasies would choose a very - ah -  _ different _ tack.”

Anja began plaiting her hair again, gazing around Nexus’s room as she chewed her lip in worry. “She has  _ obsessed _ over this for  _ years _ .”

“Well, you see, some people consider getting tricked into signing an agreement to marry a stranger a pretty big deal,” Nexus deadpanned, rubbing his glasses on the front of his lab coat. That, too, made things worse.

“I honestly thought by now that she would have just -”

“Accepted her fate as the future Lady Vinsmoke?” It was Nexus’s turn to raise an eyebrow at Anja, who turned red as she began to bluster.

“I didn’t - I never said that,” she shot back defensively.

“Oh, but someone else has?” Nexus took another sip of his tea, only to find it had already gone cold. It tasted like licking tree bark. He wrinkled his nose in distaste.

Anja’s round face had gone ever redder. “I was  _ only _ going to say that I would’ve thought she’d find some method of coping. Instead she just gets so agitated, restless and wrapped up in her own head. I’m sure you know her temper has gotten worse. Did you see the windows in -”

“I was there for that. It’ll be repaired in the morning.” It had been a decidedly ugly exchange, with her stressing out over the very same arrangement. Nexus had lost count of how many such arguments they’d had over it. She wanted out. He had no way to let her out. Rinse and repeat. “You should tell Priya that if she thinks Aspen should just accept her impending marriage to Ichiji Vinsmoke with grace, she needs to find a different guard position, if not an entire different kingdom to serve.”

Anja looked guilty. “I never said -”

“You didn’t need to. Priya lacks your subtlety and tact.” It was not the first time such a sentiment had found its way to his ears. “I would caution her to make sure the princess is not made aware of her true feelings on the matter. Though I agree with your points regarding a coping method. Her psychic ability has been violent and unpredictable lately, and we  _ cannot _ have that with her birthday in a month.”

“Wasn’t Gogo supposed to be working with her?” Anja straightened up in her chair, looking confused. “I thought that was where most of her days were spent. Though I haven’t seen the captain in a week or so…”

Nexus though briefly of Gogo. Gogo Halibar was one of the highest ranking officials in what remained of Hoarfrost’s military. She had also, he’d heard, been best friend of the revolutionary-turned-princess Theodosia, Aspen’s mother. When she’d died, Gogo had tried to take on a more maternal role to the then-infant princess. “Yes. I sent Captain Halibar to Åker on official business. She’ll be back soon with a distraction for the princess.”

Anja sighed. Nexus knew she was aware of who that meant. “Ah. Sofi Sanofi.”

Nexus flicked finger guns at her, his face flat and humorless. “You know it. She’s stayed away long enough. The young duchess is one of the only friends Aspen has. We couldn’t keep her banished to Åker forever.”

“Considering Åker is the home of the Sanofi family, I don’t see what the problem with that would’ve been.” Anja buried her face in her gloved hands. “She is a bad influence on the princess.”

Sighing, Nexus began shuffling through the shortest stack of papers on his desk, looking for what he’d been agonizing over for weeks. “They’ve been inseparable since the king died. She’s been gone for nearly a year. I think it’s high time she returns.”

“Oh, they’re  _ inseparable _ , for sure. It’s so very hard to forget having walked in on Lady Sofi with her face buried in Aspen’s snatch.” She looked as though she’d aged ten years in ten seconds. “Priya will not like this.”

“Don’t be  _ vulgar _ .” Nexus was, unfortunately, very well aware of what went on when Sofi and Aspen were together. “There doesn’t need to be an increased workload -”

“ _ Like hell _ . We have had so many sleepless shifts, trying to keep those two off of each other.” She slumped back in defeat, letting her head hang off the back of the chair, her immaculate white coat rumpling slightly. “Every minute they had alone ended with -”

Nexus quickly waved off Anja’s concerns. He did not need the rundown again. “The duchess will be placed in the room across from Aspen. They’re...not children anymore. Just leave them be.” He wasn’t sure how he formed that thought without throwing up a bit. He missed the days when Aspen had been young and (relatively) innocent. Having Sofi around was going to be the only thing to keep Aspen from destroying the palace, in time. He resumed shuffling through his papers.

Anja seemed to pick up on the strain in Nexus’s voice, and she raised an expertly shaped eyebrow. “You aren’t just letting it happen. You’re hoping it will.” She leaned on the desk, eyeing him with suspicion. “Why?”

Nexus raised a finger.

“Oh, for the love of -”

“One - that tailor she’s so fond of, Stitch? He can get her pregnant. Sofi Sanofi cannot.” He flipped up a second finger. “Two - I have news for Aspen. Sofi’s presence is going to keep her from completely erupting. I hope.” Even saying it, he didn’t quite have faith in his plan. Just thinking about it made more of his blonde hair shift grey.

Anja’s mouth sagged open. “You’re dying.”

Nexus was taken aback. “What?”

“I  _ knew _ something was wrong,” Anja babbled, frantically undoing her braid again. “You’ve lost so much weight, it’s like your skin is just sagging off your bones. And the  _ dark circles under your eyes! _ It almost looks like makeup. And your hair is greying and thinning at a pace I hadn’t thought possible. It’s going to kill Aspen to hear this.”

Deeply offended, Nexus shoved the paper he had been hunting for at her. “From the council. I received it about a month ago. Read.”

Anja quickly clamped her mouth shut and took the paper from Nexus’s hand. He watched her eyes skim the page, looking for what precisely was going to make Aspen blow.

Suddenly, her face went green. “A visit from the Royal Family of Germa.”

Nexus sucked in a deep breath, kicking his feet up onto the desk as he leaned back in his chair. It felt vindicating to have someone in the loop on what had been running him ragged behind the scenes for the last month. “Yep.”

“Aspen is going to be  _ livid _ .”

“Keep reading. It gets worse.” Nexus didn’t even want to think about it any more than he already had. He’d submitted orders for every department in the palace to stock up on  _ everything _ . Food, towels, sheets, cleaning supplies. But the formal announcement had not been made yet to the staff. His lab report from earlier had been the singular bright spot in a miserable month. 

“They’re due to arrive...November 11th.” Anja had a brief flash of relief wash over her face. “That gives us another month to prepare.”

“When is Princess Aspen’s birthday?”

The green pallor was back. “Oh,  _ fuck _ .” Anja began shaking her head slowly, eyes glued to the paper, reading and re-reading. “Fuck  _ me _ .”

“November 11th until May 11th. A six month visit. Just in time for Aspen’s birthday, through Yule and the new year.” Through the birthdays of the Vinsmoke princess and princes, as well, though Nexus did not volunteer that. He felt a bubble of anger on Aspen’s behalf beginning to rise inside him. “Apparently they wanted to have a long enough stay to make the trip worthwhile...completely ridiculous, and the council acquiesced. Without consulting me  _ or _ Princess Aspen.”

Anja gave Nexus a weak smile. “You’re going to need something much stronger than Sofi Sanofi to cushion this blow.”

At the very least, Nexus knew who to blame. Torvig, the head of the council, as well as Judge Vinsmoke. Nexus was angry at himself for having been caught off-guard in the first place. “Torvig’s quite the purist, you know. I don’t think he’s liked Aspen her whole life.”

“So…marrying her off to Germa is his way of punishing her for what, existing?”

“Existing and being on the throne, I’m sure.” Nexus had not enjoyed a single moment ever spent with Torvig - nor with any other councilman. He did not speak of them as contemptuously as Aspen (in public) but the feeling was always there. “I’ll tell you what, though - Priya wants to get on Aspen for being upset over having to marry Prince Ichiji? Tell Priya to get on those old bastards on the council for not being over Aspen’s mother having married the king nearly twenty years after her death. Ridiculous.”

A loud bang on the door made them both jump. Nexus inadvertently kicked over another couple stacks of papers as he pulled his legs back off the desk. Anja leapt to her feet and he grabbed the paper she’d dropped, stuffing it in the same drawer as his lab report. “You should probably go.”

“Planning to.” Anja quickly turned on her heel towards the door. She’d no sooner reached for the knob when the door opened on its own. From behind, Nexus saw Anja freeze and go rigid.

“Princess Aspen!” Anja’s voice sounded four octaves higher than normal, and guilty as sin.

Nexus cringed, resisting the urge to bang his head on the desk. Anja could not lie to Aspen to save her life.  _ “Why did I tell  _ **_her_ ** _ about the visit? _ ”

Aspen was, predictably, unimpressed. “Cut it out. I know you were both talking about me.” She looked and sounded exhausted, dressed in her regular attire - a long sleeved shirt in grey, black leggings, and knee-high boots. It seemed she had decided to forgo her cape. 

Anja, with a quick bow to Aspen and a nervous look at Nexus, disappeared through the doorway, pulling the door shut behind her. Nexus was alone with what looked to be a very unhappy Aspen. “What do you need?” He tried to keep it calm and casual.

“When were you planning on telling me all the stuff I heard you telling Anja?” Aspn walked away from the chair where Anja had just been sitting and moved to the large window, overlooking a neglected corner of an ice sculpture garden. “Am I just not a priority anymore?”

Nexus could certainly feel his aging accelerate as he rubbed his temples with tired, aching fingers. This is not how he would have preferred she learn of Germa’s upcoming visit but she appeared to be taking it in stride. “Of  _ course _ you are. I just wanted the timing to be right.”

Aspen laughed, still looking out the window and not at him. Her thick black hair blocked her face from view. “Fucking Torvig. Hopefully he’ll die soon.”

“I went to try and speak to you earlier.”

“Hm?” Aspen turned and gave him a glance. Her green eyes were half-open, and her eyebrows slightly raised. “Oh yeah?”

Nexus wasn’t sure if this was the best time to confess to eavesdropping on her, but he felt uncomfortable not telling her. “I came over earlier and you were talking to Jack. Seemed like you preferred to be alone so I...left.” He fiddled with his glasses nervously as she stared at him. “I did overhear a thing or two.”

There was a small  _ thunk _ as Aspen lightly banged her head into the window. “Of course you did. What was it?”

“Nothing much.” Nexus stood up, stretching his legs and almost hitting his head on the unusually low ceiling in his office. He began sorting and moving stacks of papers aimlessly, pushing them together and setting them behind his desk, against the wall. He didn’t think he could just sit still much longer. “You praying and hoping for Ichiji to die -”

“ _ God _ .” Aspen pulled her head back and let it smack into the window again.

“It won’t work.”

“Last I checked it’s kind of hard to make someone marry a corpse.” Aspen lifted her head off the window again and paused thoughtfully. “ _ Although _ it might make the marriage easier to stomach if he’s fucking dead.”

Nexus began picking up the papers Anja had knocked over earlier, turning his back to Aspen. “If Ichiji dies, you marry Niji. If Niji dies, you marry Yonji.”

“Oh. Huh.”

There was a moment of silence, and Aspen erupted into loud laughter, turning around and pressing her back to the window before sliding into a seated position on the floor. “Ah, god. Oh, fuck. Of  _ course _ that’s how it is.” Nexus could smell the wine on her breath from several feet away as he turned to look at her. “Ohhhh of course. Goddamn it.”

Nexus understood completely. “You’re drunk.”

Aspen looked up at him with a smirk, her face framed in piecey black waves. “Correction. I am buzzed.  _ Slightly _ buzzed. I can still count, spell my name, and walk up a flight of stairs. All the wine has done is made me find this situation hilarious instead of soul crushing.” She tilted her head back and began giggling again.

“Your shirt is inside-out,” Nexus pointed out in his best ‘disappointed father’ voice, having just realized it.

“It is.” Aspen nodded enthusiastically. “I’m  _ lazy _ , not drunk.”

Nexus opened his mouth to argue when a throat cleared from the doorway. He turned around and Aspen looked up, her laughter trailing off. 

Standing in the open doorway was a woman slightly shorter than Nexus, with greying brown hair pulled in a tight, polished bun. Her uniform was an upgraded version of what Anja had been sporting earlier, an immaculate military ensemble of silver and white. Over both hips, she had two guns slung low.

“Gogo!” Aspen scrambled to her feet, slipping past Nexus and stumbling into the arms of Hoarfrost’s top military commander, who caught her and kissed her forehead.

She smelled Aspen for a moment, eyeing her. “Blueberry wine?” She grasped Aspen by her chin, tilted her head back. Aspen started laughing. “Oh, child, you  _ are _ your mother’s daughter.”

“Aspen?” There was another voice behind Gogo from someone standing out in the hallway. “Are you in there?”

A petite woman only slightly taller than Aspen side-stepped Gogo, wrapped up in a heavy coat and matching cloche hat, both the same shade of carnation - the shade that Aspen began to flush at the sight of her. “I hope you missed me even half as much as Gogo.”

“S-Sofi,” Aspen stammered, mouth twitching into an even broader smile. “Oh my god.”

Sofi swept her hat off, freeing a headful of honey-colored curls. The spray of freckles across her nose seemed to have gotten even wider since Nexus had seen her last, spreading nearly from ear to ear on her golden complexion. “It would seem I’m finally permitted to return to the palace. I hope nobody’s told Priya and Anja. I’d love to catch them unawares.” She gave Aspen a wicked grin.

“Aspen, perhaps you should go and take Sofi to her room?” Nexus watched Gogo put a hand on Aspen’s back and push her forward, right into Sofi. She flashed Nexus a quick, urgent look.

Aspen gave Gogo a surprised look as Sofi pulled her into a tight hug, openly caressing her back and stroking her hair. “But I don’t know where -”

“The room right next to yours, it’s been cleaned out for her.” Nexus knew it wouldn’t matter, Sofi would be flagrantly living in Aspen’s room within a matter of days anyway. “Use the transponder to call for Miss Colette if you need food. I’m sure you know the drill.”

“But -” Aspen opened her mouth to protest again when Sofi linked arms with her, pulling her out of Nexus’s office and into the hallway.

“No no, kitten. We have catching up to do.” Her voice was still sweet and warm, but the hunger in her eyes as she gave Aspen a slow once-over was blatant and shameless.

Nexus busied himself with papers again, trying his best to pretend he noticed nothing.

Gogo smiled and bobbed her head with over the top enthusiasm, all but shoving both girls further down the hall. “Yes you do, you both do, off you go.”

Aspen said nothing else but continued to flush an even deeper pink as she walked away arm in arm with Sofi, who didn’t even wait until they were out of sight before she started squeezing Aspen’s ass through her leggings.

Gogo beamed at them as they left. “They remind me so much of Theo and I.”

“ _ God _ I hope not.” Nexus shuddered. He stretched his arms behind him, feeling his bones pop and grind. “I think we both know what they’ll be getting up to.”

Sighing, Gogo closed the door, and walked past Nexus to drop into the seat at his desk. “Sofi’s probably more tender with Aspen than her husband is going to be. Let the poor girl have  _ something _ , for fuck’s sake.”

“I assume you wanted a private audience? You’ve got it.” Nexus moved right past Gogo’s previous statement, not wanting to go down that route. It was a dark, unhappy place, and it was moving closer every day. He stole a glance over his shoulder at Gogo as he continued to organize, and saw a trouble expression.  _ “That does not bode well _ .”

“On the way back from Åker with Sofi, we took the train. Due to recent avalanches around parts of the north-south track, we were routed slightly further east before we could switch trains and get on a more direct route back to Snøvanger.” Gogo kicked her boots up onto Nexus’s desk, knocking over his framed photo. He scowled at her as he picked it back up and moved it away from her feet before dropping back into his chair opposite her.

“So you came to complain about what, avalanches? I can’t control the fucking snow. We live on a winter island.”

“We passed through Altest and Drammen on the way.” Gogo stood back up again and began pacing, her boots thudding on the thin, worn carpet. “Pretty far off the beaten path. I feel the railway extensions out there a few years back didn’t help.”

Nexus was beginning to feel frustrated again. He had enough on his plate: his lab, Germa’s visit, all these things were more important to him than some backwater like Altest and Drammen. “You can’t help people who don’t want to be helped.”

“Strongly agreed.” She stopped, and glanced back at Nexus. “Are you familiar with this kingdom’s old beliefs?”

A strange question. “It’s always been science. Science and progress.” He couldn’t help but impart a tone of  _ no shit _ to his response: Hoarfrost’s technological advances and developments had put them neck and neck with Germa. 

Gogo seemed to be thinking along the same lines as she leaned against the wall. “The Frostbane family certainly thought so...after all, why should Germa be the only kingdom powered by advances in science?...But no, that’s not right.”

“So what’s the answer?” Nexus could not believe she was wasting his time with this. He could be in his lab at this very moment. But here he was, stuck in his tight office, playing guessing games with the head of the military.

“Their religion is what people usually mean when they talk about old beliefs. Aspen’s mother was particularly devout. You don’t really see it a lot anymore, unsurprisingly. Science and religion do seem to be at odds with each other most of the time.” She made her way to the window, sliding open one of the panes and letting in a blast of air that chilled next through both his lab coat and black suit. “It’s mostly irrelevant now. The only one of the old pantheon people still seem to know about is Maniluna.”

_ That _ name sounded oddly familiar to Nexus. The recognition must’ve shown in his face, as Gogo continued on.

“Maniluna is a moon goddess. Or, you know, people  _ believed _ that.” Gogo pulled a cigar and engraved lighter out of her breast pocket. She pushed the cigar between her lips and quickly lit it. “There’s a cult that still worships her, they call themselves ‘Servants of the Silver Queen’ or some horseshit like that.  _ They _ believe that the Frostbane princesses and queens are incarnations of Maniluna and need to be sent back to the heavens.”

Nexus’s eyes began to water from the heavy grey smoke of Gogo’s cigar. “Right. Okay. And how does one do that?”

Cigar clenched in her teeth, Gogo gave him a side glance. “By burning her alive.”

“I see.” Nexus continued to feel frustration and an utter lack of concern. “Well, Aspen has been alive for almost 19 years and nobody has tried to burn her alive yet.”

Gogo puffed on her cigar, the wind blowing through the open pane pushing all the smoke back into the office. “She’s not considered a silver queen to them yet. You’re still regent. They’re waiting until she assumes the full power of the crown. I heard them talking about it, in broad daylight, in Altest and Drammen. If they’re talking about it in the biggest backwater in the wasteland that is Central Hoarfrost, they’ll be talking about it in the smaller villages too.”

“Nobody,” Nexus slammed his fists onto the now clean desktop, rattling his picture and his lamp. “Is going to be burning Aspen alive.”

Gogo seemed unconvinced. “And you’ll protect her? With the slender frame of yours that has likely never known battle?”

Nexus ignored the jab at his physique. “How many goddamn troops do we have out there?”

“None. The revolution - before Aspen’s parents took the throne - wiped out most of the royal army. We’re at an eight of the strength we once had. I do not have the numbers to keep standing troops just hanging out in Central Hoarfrost. We need to protect the larger cities and ports.” Gogo continued to stand at the window, buffeted in snow and ice coming in from outside, neither flinching nor shuddering as snow accumulated in her hair. “The central province has gotten  _ wild _ . More wild than I’ve seen it. I saw many burned out and abandoned villages on my way here with Sofi. And neither the World Government nor the Marines will do a damn thing to help us. Oh, they want our resources, but we get no help.”

“I’m aware.” 15 years as regent had made him keenly aware.

Gogo hesitated for a brief moment, slowly looking him up and down as he sat shivering at his desk. “We will get Germa’s troops when Aspen marries Ichiji. The infamous army.”

“That’s two years from now.” Nexus shifted uncomfortably in his chair, looking away from Gogo, who had a peculiar expression on her face. “When he and Aspen are both 21.”

“I’ve read the contract. Not until they’re 21…’barring extenuating circumstances.’” Gogo had lifted that phrase directly from the contract. Nexus had read it enough to know. He did not like how it sounded coming out of her. “That is an awfully long time to wait. Something ugly is thawing in the central province. I have heard from the council that Germa will be visiting soon.”

“You heard correctly.” Nexus did not like where this was going. He stood up again, and searched for something to busy himself with. He began moving the same paper stacks he’d set against the wall earlier, acutely aware of Gogo’s gaze on his back. 

“‘Extenuating circumstances’....” Gogo repeated, tossing her cigar out the window and pulled out another, even fatter one. “I will tell you right now, if you are half as smart as everyone says you are, you’ll be encouraging Princess Aspen to find her way into Prince Ichiji’s bed so he can put an ‘extenuating circumstance’ inside her.”

“Are you out of your  _ fucking mind?” _ Nexus dropped the papers he’d been pretending to sort, and they swirled around the room from the wind. “I am not discussing this.”

“Is it so terrible? Judge Vinsmoke gets a foot in the door in Hoarfrost, faster than even he had anticipated. Hoarfrost will get an heir and we both know how uncomfortable it’s been with Aspen being the last. We get Germa’s army and we can crush whatever is happening in the central province.” Gogo had barely noticed Nexus’s outrage as she went down the list. “Everyone would get what they want.”

Nexus had heard more than enough. “Everyone  _ except Aspen _ .” He pointed to the door. “You need to leave. I’m going to do you a favor and act as though this conversation never happened at all.” He did not want to imagine how betrayed Aspen would feel if she heard such a thing from the woman who was like an aunt to her.

Gogo gave Nexus a dirty look, but closed the window pane and made her way to the door regardless. “Don’t you act all high and mighty with me. Aspen is going to end up with Ichiji sooner or later, and with  _ my _ plan, we have a hope in hell at keeping her safe from religious fanatics who think she’s a goddamn moon goddess.”

Nexus continued to point at the door. “Out. NOW.”

Without another word, Gogo left, slamming the door as hard as she could. The lamp and picture on Nexus’s desk both fell over, with the lamp going out, and a crack appeared in the frame around the door.

Sitting back down at his desk, Nexus could feel a migraine coming on fast. He fixed the photo, and propped his lamp back up as he switched it back on. The room stayed dark. Nexus held the frame in an outstretched hand, picturing the photo clearly as though the room was still lit. After a moment, he stood up once more, leaving his office. He wanted more than anything to go to his lab - but it seemed best to stop by and make sure Wintergreen still remembered his face. He passed a large mirror in the hallway, and stopped for once to look at himself.

He had been handsome once - over six feet tall, lean and lightly muscled. His hair, rapidly becoming more grey with every passing hour, had been golden blonde and shiny. He barely recognized his face - once young and fresh with a defined jawline and defiant smirk. Now he was stubbly and pale, with dark circles beneath his eyes. The clothes he’d always worn in his younger days - a finely tailored suit under his ever-present lab coat - had persisted, but didn’t seem to look as good on him as they once had. At least his eyes were the same blue they’d always been. That part would never change. 

Nexus touched his reflection and chuckled. “God, what a ragged bastard. Why does Wintergreen stay with me?” He glanced around to see if anyone had heard him talking to himself before moving on. From the hall windows, he could see another blizzard blowing, shoving snow into every pane and accumulating fast in the trees.

“There is nothing thawing in Hoarfrost,” he asserted firmly, putting Gogo’s warnings out of mind for good. “What nonsense.”


	3. SOFI I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- more world-building and OCs only though again more mentions of the non-OCs and how they'll play into this, I AM SORRY  
> \- light-ish F/F smut in this chapter and it only increases from here  
> \- I realize now there was a mixup in the spelling of this character's name in previous chapters (ie, Sophie/Sofi), the correct spelling is Sofi. I will go back and correct this mistake in the earlier chapters. My bad.  
> \- this is #3 of the #4 POVs, the final POV person will be introduced in the next chapter and then the cycle will restart (Aspen, Nexus, Sofi, etc)  
> \- I am aware it is a slog to get to the non-OC characters, I promise the buildup is important  
> \- your constructive feedback sustains me

“Are you awake?”

“Yeah.” Aspen sat up slowly, scooting up to prop herself against her headboard. The bedroom was illuminated by moonlight streaming in from the windows, magnified brightly by all the snow that had fallen in the last few hours. “I think I had a nightmare maybe.”

Sofi cuddled snugly against her, pressing her cool cheek into Aspen’s surprisingly warm upper arm. She’d almost forgotten how toasty this girl was at all times. “An actual scary one or just one where like, you’re trapped in the body of a dog or something?”

“I...don’t know if that second example would really like, count as a nightmare.” Aspen brushed her hair out of her eyes and blinked, squinting towards the windows on the opposite end of the room. “I think being a dog might be alright.”

“Yeah until you get a bowl of brown pebbles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.” Sofi would never want to be a dog.

Aspen didn’t respond.

Beneath the covers, Sofi slid a hand over the smooth skin of Aspen’s hip and past her belly, nudging her fingers between her legs. She was  _ always _ warmest there. “Well, if you’re awake, and I’m awake, I can think of a few things we could do.”

Aspen’s breath caught a bit as Sofi slipped a finger between her lower lips, nudging gently against her clit before pushing inside her. It went in easier than it had earlier. Laughing, Sofi craned her head up to gently bite Aspen’s neck. “ _ So _ sensitive. I’m gone for a year and you’re back to getting all flustered from one finger. You didn’t used to be this easy.”

“I’ve been deprived,” Aspen argued. Sofi moved her mouth from Aspen’s neck and kissed down to her left breast, kissing around the nipple before sucking it into her mouth. She had missed how it hardened so fast against her lips. “It’s been a good bit.”

Sofi ignored her, sucking harder and pressing the flat of her tongue against Aspen’s nipple, feeling her body writhe against her as she felt a tight squeeze around her fingers. If Aspen was deprived - well, Sofi was willing to put in the work to take care of that. Her skin against Sofi’s cheek was warm and soft, but her breast was firm beneath. Breathing deep through her nose, she nuzzled against Aspen, stroking her tongue over the nipple as she moved her finger slowly and gently inside her. Aspen was slick, and only getting slicker.

“Sofi -” Aspen struggled to get a word out, and her finger crept onto Sofi’s head, pressing against her scalp through the mess of curls. “Let’s….let’s go for a walk. We have all the time in the world for this.”

An odd request for someone supposedly so ‘deprived.’ Sofi looked up at Aspen, raising an eyebrow and continuing to work her magic with her mouth and finger. She’d barely gotten in past the first knuckle and Aspen was wet like Sofi had her head down there. Rolling her eyes, Sofi pressed her face tighter against her skin, and began curling and uncurling her finger inside Aspen.

“ _ Really _ , Sofi.” Aspen slipped her fingers out of her hair before reluctantly pushing Sofi’s head from her chest, mildly annoying her. This was  _ not _ the action of a deprived person, and Sofi had not gotten to play with Aspen nearly as much as she’d wanted before they had fallen asleep. 

“I want to go for a walk.” Aspen insisted, her face flushed. “Everyone else is probably asleep. It’ll be okay.”

Flashing a mischievous grin at Aspen, Sofi curled her finger more insistently, pushing in deeper until her palm came to rest again her mound. “Your mouth says ‘I want to go for a walk’ but the way your pussy is squeezing me says -”

“ _ Sofi _ .”

“Tch. You’re no fun.” Sofi pulled her finger out and sat up, wiping the stickiness on the blanket pulled over them. She could feel her curls springing out in every direction, snarled and tangled in every way imaginable. It would take ages to comb out in the morning - but for now, she’d wear a hat. 

On the bright side, it didn’t appear Aspen had escaped the one-two punch of post-sex bedhead hair either, with her long black waves jutting out in weird angles from being smashed against the mattress. Naked, she stumbled out of bed, tripping on one of their boots and faceplanting onto the floor.

Sofi pulled the blanket off of her and was immediately struck by how cold and drafty the room felt. Had they left a goddamn window open? Did Aspen’s windows even  _ open _ ? She started to pull the thick fleece blanket back over her exposed skin. “By ‘walk’ you do mean just exploring the palace and not like...actually going out in below-freezing temperatures in the middle of the night...right?”

Aspen, getting back to her feet, looked at Sofi and raised an eyebrow.

“God, fuck you. Why did I even ask?” She pivoted her legs over the edge of the bed and climbed down, having an easier time of it than Aspen. There was really no reason for the frame to be as high as it was, but Sofi did  _ so _ enjoy watching a half-awake Aspen fall and eat shit every time she got up. Turning back to the bed, she pulled the blanket the rest of the way down, exposing discarded articles of clothing. None of it looked like hers. “I can’t find my underwear.”

Aspen was halfway through pulling up a pair of leggings she’d pulled down from a wall lamp. “Check the pile behind the door.”

Sofi chuckled, watching Aspen struggle to pull the leggings over her ass. “Or I could just watch this striptease in reverse.”

Aspen pointed at the small mountain of clothing directly behind the bedroom door. “Check there for your underwear.”

“Frigid bitch,” Sofi rolled her eyes again before , taking the few steps over to the pile Aspen had indicated. Her coat was there, and her hat. So was her skirt and her sweater, and the thick stockings she’d been wearing earlier. Her bra was inexplicably shoved inside her hat. “I still can’t find my underwear.”

“Guess you’re going without.” Aspen had already slipped into a long-sleeved thermal shirt, and was in the process of lacing up her boots. She’d tied her hair into an unruly top bun that was definitely going to come undone in a matter of minutes. 

Sofi shrugged. “Guess so.” She got into the rest of her clothes from earlier quickly enough, swapping her skirt for a pair of Aspen’s ubiquitous black leggings. They felt extra toasty over the stockings, and the layering kind of made up for the extra space over her butt and hips. 

As she slipped into her coat, checking the sleeves for her underwear, she noticed Aspen, fully dressed, had gravitated towards the windows, staring out at the sleeping city and the harbor. In the moonlight, she still looked like someone more ready for bed than a walk. Sofi crept up silently behind her, looping an arm around her waist. “It is absolutely not too late to admit this is a stupid idea and get back in bed.”

“It’s a full moon tonight. That’ll make it easier to see.” Aspen pulled away from Sofi and headed to the door. She seemed to be distracted by something, all wrapped up in her own head. Sofi hated nights like that. “Come on.”

Grumbling under her breath, Sofi followed. As they left, Jack slipped back in, tail tip swishing against Sofi’s legs as he darted through the door in a flash of white.

The northern wing of the palace was calm and quiet, but then, it usually was. Aspen, prior to Sofi’s return, was its sole inhabitant. In the main corridor, one wall was all windows, still letting in moonlight. The other half was a row of doors, all neatly shut tight. Nearly all of the bedrooms were reserved for the many princes and princesses of the Frostbane family - long gone now - and were locked up and left vacant. Sofi followed Aspen past closed door after closed door, admiring the gilded designs imprinted on each one. Every door had a different design - Sofi couldn’t imagine wasting time on something like that.

“Lot of empty rooms you’re just letting go to waste,” Sofi observed, walking closely enough behind Aspen to be stepping on her heels. 

“They’re not  _ empty _ . Not really. You know that.”

Sofi remembered then the one time she and Aspen had snuck into one of the abandoned bedrooms. Nobody had ever come right out and told them they couldn’t go exploring in them, but it was clearly an unspoken rule. The bedroom had been dark, the air almost solid with how much dust was floating around, and all sorts of crates had been stacked haphazardly against the walls. The furniture from the previous inhabitant was all styled witchy and gothic, deeply black and richly carved, and it had all been shoved into a far corner. 

A large canopy bed, draped in a gauzy black fabric, had been left in the exact center of the room, stacked with old books and a small box of jewelry. Sofi had pried open the delicate box of black gold, marveling at the lace pieces, dark stones, and cameos - and had taken the entire thing with her when they snuck back out. Aspen had grabbed a couple books that now sat, neglected, on a low stool in her room.

“There really are a  _ lot _ of rooms though,” Sofi continued. She had missed the palace but she didn’t really miss how creepy the northern wing could be. The walls were painted such a dark grey they seemed to absorb any light that fell on them, and the tiny, globe-shaped wall sconces were not nearly enough illumination. 

“There were a lot of Frostbanes.” Aspen seemed to pull herself out of her head for a brief moment, looking at the doors. “And now there aren’t.”

After a few minutes, they reached a V shaped intersection, with two other hallways branching off the main one, stretching back in the direction they’d already came. Sofi and Aspen usually went down either of the two hallways looking for a balcony to jump off of. On her own, Sofi would never dare - but Aspen’s power was pretty useful for slowing them down so they didn’t absorb the full force of the fall. 

Aspen continued straight.

Sofi hung back. “The palace hub is that way.” The palace was in the form of a giant snowflake, with all wings leading back to the central hub. The hub was home to dining rooms, the kitchens, the laundry hall, and a bunch of other stuff Sofi couldn’t remember - Aspen spent most of her time in her room with her violin, so that was where Sofi stayed as well. 

“It is.” Aspen kept walking, her silver cape drifting after. “It’ll be okay. I don’t think we’ll run into any guards.”

“You sound awfully sure of yourself.”

“I sneak out sometimes to go see Musette.”

“ _ Do _ you now?” Musette was a young member of the staff, very close in age to the both of them. She was more level-headed than either Sofi or Aspen were inclined to be, and had very low tolerance for weird shit. So, of course, they dragged her into their shenanigans whenever possible. “I didn’t think Musette preferred women. You didn’t break our only rule, did you?”

Aspen scowled. “She doesn’t, and no. I go see her so we can hang out.”

“Speaking of Musette,” Sofi walked a little faster to keep pace with Aspen, keep to her right. “You fire her mom yet?”

“She’s begged me not to. Says it’s not as bad as it used to be.” They passed under the high archway of the northern wing, crossing into the main hub of the palace. Ahead of them, an oversized, decadent chandelier hung over a wide opening cut through all the floor, a skylight positioned above. The moonlight hitting the chandelier threw small rainbows in the wide open space of the hub, glowing on the walls of the highest level where they stood. 

“You believe her?”

“The bruises tell me otherwise.”

Aspen walked right ahead to the railing. Sofi followed, looking down over the edge to the bottom floor, where the kitchens, laundry, and a few other palace facilities were. Every floor on the way down had the same railing, twisted in silver, lit by small strings of lights around the perimeter of the cutaway. The bottom floor, with its bright white tile, seemed awfully far away for Sofi. “You know, the stairs are right -”

On cue, Aspen pulled herself onto the edge of the railing, twisting around so her legs hung in the air before the jump. Sofi started to back away before being jerked up in the air by an invisible force and dropped down hard onto the narrow railing. She grabbed the railing with one hand, muffling a freaked out scream with the other. When she’d gotten her bearings, she rounded on Aspen. “Don’t fucking do that!”

“I’ve still got it.”

“Don’t fucking do that!”

Aspen smirked at her as she gripped the railing on either side with both hands. “Oh, you’re not  _ afraid _ are you?”

“No,” Sofi protested. She had been gone for a year. A year. Aspen’s power always had an adjusting phase whenever Sofi returned from being away. “Does your husband-to-be know about this yet?” 

Anger flared in Aspen’s eyes. “I dunno. Probably. Maybe the council told him. Maybe they didn’t. I’m assuming they did but they’re really not big on anyone outside the palace knowing. Or inside the palace, now that I think about it.” 

Sofi couldn’t imagine how anyone  _ inside _ the palace couldn’t be aware of it. Since she had realized she had such an ability, Aspen had used it for all kinds of troublemaking - flinging herself off of balconies only to stop short before hitting the ground, levitating laundry carts away from staffers who fruitlessly chased them, and - on occasion - completely flipping her lid and destroying an entire room, from ceiling to floor, without raising a finger.

That had, of course, only happened once.

“I would think everyone would be pretty excited that the princess is a psychic. How many other people can defend themselves by throwing a whole-ass bookcase or dresser at someone?” Sofi had posed this argument repeatedly, including at Nexus for grounds to have Anja and Priya removed from Aspen’s personal guard. 

Aspen let go of the railing to shrug. “I think people are unnerved by the thought that I could technically snap someone’s neck without touching them.”

“Again - how is this not useful?”

Aspen struggled to formulate an answer for a moment before opting instead to lean sideways and plant a soft kiss on Sofi’s forehead. “I missed having you around.”

“I missed you too.” Sofi looked over at the chandelier, and then up at the moon through the skylight. The sky was usually so choked in grey clouds, it was nice for a chance to see all the different stars. She glanced at Aspen, who was looking up as well. “Do you remember the first time I kissed you?”

Aspen smiled sadly, lowering her gaze back down to her knees. “We were eight. You’d just gotten back from a trip home to Åker, right after my - after -”

“After your father died,” Sofi finished for her, speaking softly and carefully. All these years later it was still raw. “Everyone kept trying to talk to me, like talking was going to make everything better right away. I freaked out after one to many instances of that and ran and hid in the eastern wing’s greenhouse -”

“And I followed you.” Sofi could remember it plain as day, stumbling after Aspen, who even then was one of the fastest people in the palace. She’d found her curled up under one of the greenhouse fountains, getting her black dress all wet. “I crawled under the fountain with you and I kissed you.”

“Didn’t say a word, if I remember right,” Aspen added, looking a little less sad. She looked back up at the moon. “Which, thank god for that. I didn’t need any more people talking to me.”

Sofi threw her head back and laughed, her hat falling onto the floor behind her as her curls sprung free. “I’d seen other people kiss before to try and make someone feel better, I thought it might work for you. Obviously it didn’t but -”

“It did a little bit.”

“Oh, okay then, a little bit.” Sofi looked around to see if any staffers or guards had come around in the time they had been sitting there, but they were still alone with the moon and the chandelier. She didn’t remember the heart of the palace being so under-manned at night - though maybe it wasn’t necessary anymore with Aspen being older and more tech-based security measures having been put in place. “Do you remember the second time?”

Aspen sighed, swinging her legs over the edge, gazing down at all the glittering levels below. “Not even a month later. After the council tricked me into signing the marriage agreement between me and Ichiji fucking Vinsmoke.”

“I found you crying under your bed, I thought someone had died again -”

“I really don’t want to talk about this time,” Aspen interrupted, frowning. “It’s basically part of the story of me accidentally ruining my life at eight. I don’t like remembering all the crying and begging and hyperventilating.”

“I can’t say I blame you. I’d be the same if I got signed off to a complete stranger.” He wasn’t a complete stranger at this point, though, was he?  _ Everyone _ knew about Germa 66 and  _ everyone _ knew he was one of their commanders. Tall, handsome, strong, and already with a cruel streak. Sofi had heard the whispers, same as everyone else. The idea of sharing him with Aspen in two years filled her with an anger she couldn’t put into words.

“Not helping,” Aspen pointed out.

Sofi forced herself to stop that train of thought with a kiss on Aspen’s head. Getting angry over an inevitable future now would ruin the mood for both of them. “Are we going outside or were you fucking with me?”

“I just wanted an excuse to get out of the room. We don’t have to go outside.”

_ “You fucking bitch.” _ Sofi leaned in close again, clasping a hand over Aspen’s. “And I’ve been looking for another excuse to kiss you the way you deserve it.”

“What’s stopping you?” Aspen challenged. So close to her face, Sofi could see every eyelash, the light circles under her eyes, the curl to her lip. She’d almost forgotten how goddamn much she missed every inch of it.

“Looking for the right moment.”

Another eye roll from Aspen. “Awfully coy for the woman who just a few hours ago was grinding on my face with her fingers all twisted in my hair.”

“You shush. I’m waiting for a moment.”

Aspen grabbed Sofi around her waist, hard, as they locked eyes. She smirked again, squeezing Sofi tightly. “Here comes your moment.”

Clutched tightly by Aspen, Sofi felt them both being heaved backwards off the railing. Sofii shut her eyes and crushed her lips against Aspen’s as they fell, air whipping around them. The intensity of the fall seemed to slow courtesy of Aspen’s concentration, and soon it felt to Sofi as though she were floating in midair, held only in place by Aspen’s arms. She didn’t open her eyes, worried she would both spoil the magic and give herself a heart attack if she could see them both floating.

Gently, Aspen loosened her grip on Sofi, but Sofi didn’t feel herself falling any faster than she had been when she was held tight. Aspen’s hands, still cold as ever, grasped at hers, and they laced their fingers tightly together as they began to slowly, slowly descend towards the ground. Sofi could feel her face against hers, smiling, nuzzling her nose against hers. It made Sofi feel warm and almost fizzy, from her core to her fingertips and toes.

When they finally landed on the cool, tiled bottom floor of the palace hub, it felt more like they’d both decided to lay from a standing position, rather than having just fallen from several floors up. Sofi had made the same leap with Aspen so many times before - but never once had it felt like that. She opened her eyes to Aspen kneeling over her, grinning broadly, the light from the moon seeming to cast a glow around her head.

“You’re right. That was quite a moment.”

“And we didn’t die. A big plus.” Aspen’s normally pale face was flushed pink, her cheeks full and happy. 

Sofi felt a weird feeling in her gut as she smiled back up at Aspen, the same butterfly feeling she’d been getting for the last several years. She felt oddly jittery, and reached out to brush some of Aspen’s hair over her shoulder. It looked like her bun had lasted a little longer than she’d originally bet. “Hey Aspen.”

“Hey Sofi,” Aspen teased, switching to a sitting position on the floor beside Sofi, legs crossed, looking up at the massive chandelier that was now directly above them. 

Sofi pressed herself up into a sitting position as well, looking at the ground level hub around them. She opened her mouth to speak, and her tongue instantly stuck to the roof of her mouth when she realized they were being watched from one of the corridors. They were wearing a featureless, long black robe, and Sofi couldn’t tell if they were male or female. Their head was that of a massive crow, large black eyes locked on Sofi and Aspen.

She blinked, and it was gone.

“Hey, Sofi?” Aspen repeated, looking at Sofi with a confused look. “You okay?”

“Oh, yeah. Totally just lost my train of thought.” Had she imagined it? Sofi leaned forward slightly, straining to see the entrance to the corridor in the dim lighting. There was nothing there, and no proof that there had been anything there - at least not that she could see. Just an empty hallway leading to the kitchens and laundry, the tile floor worn with tracks from the carts the staff used.

Aspen turned her head to look where Sofi was staring. “What are you looking at?”

“Nothing.” Sofi got back to her feet, brushing off dirt she knew wasn’t there - the palace staff was impeccable with their cleaning. She didn’t know why she had lied, but she didn’t feel like telling Aspen was the right thing to do. Sofi just had the strongest urge to go back to the room, lock the door, and wait for morning. If she told Aspen what she’d seen, they’d end up right down that dark corridor instead. On their own. “Was there anything else you wanted to do or was this all a big setup to fling me off the top floor and smooch me?”

“A big setup,” Aspen cheerfully admitted, getting to her feet, shaking her hair into place behind her shoulder and down her back. Whatever weirdness had been hanging over her when they’d first left the room seemed gone, finally, and she looked much happier. “We could go steal snacks out of the kitchens if you want -”

“NO. I mean -” Sofi quickly tried to recover as Aspen raised an eyebrow. “I don’t want to have to brush my teeth again. Let’s just go back to bed.”

Sofi never turned down snacks, ever. And they both knew it. But thankfully, Aspen just shrugged her small shoulders and turned away. “Sure, that works. Let’s take the stairs back up. I’m better at getting us down on my own than I am at getting us up.”

Not for the first time that night, Sofi was stepping on Aspen’s heels all the way to the stairs, shooting nervous looks at every shadow when Aspen wasn’t paying attention. She saw nothing, and heard nothing - but she  _ had _ seen the crow thing. There was no way she had imagined anything like that. She just had no idea what it could be - or why it was in the palace.

They were halfway up the stairs to the top floor when Sofi heard a whisper of a voice from below.

“Hail, moon goddess. Hail, blessed sacrifice.”


	4. MUSETTE I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- this is one of my favorite chapters ngl  
> \- more world-building obvs but in the next few chapters I did some HEAVY editing and frankenstein-ing of content so I can get places faster  
> \- the inspiration for the person who shows up at the very end was Sahara from Animal Crossing and it's some of my favorite dialogue.  
> -EDITED 4/13, fixed a few minor things

Usually, Musette Torte hated how empty the northern wing was. It always seemed like a waste of space, holding onto bedrooms of princes and princesses who’d been killed some twenty-odd years before. True, she had no ideas on how to better utilize the space - but her point stood. Who needed an entire _wing_ of stuff that used to belong to dead people? She didn’t know how Aspen could stand being so isolated.

This particular night, though, the isolation suited her just fine. The fewer people that saw her, the better. Her dress - the long-sleeved grey dress that staffers could choose to wear if they didn’t want pants - was still wet even after her long walk from the staff quarters in the northeastern wing. It was like being trapped in a cloud of vodka. Musette couldn’t think of anything she hated quite as much as vodka - with, perhaps, the exception of her mother.

Staff were dismissed by nine, ten-thirty if they were hosting royal guests - which, save for the Nefertari family of Alabasta - she hated and avoided doing. Most of the staff were asleep at this hour, or at least in their apartments eating, reading, fucking - whatever. It meant there was a significantly decreased chance of anyone seeing Musette walking to the princess’s room, sporting a new shiner.

At 18, she was the youngest member of the staff, only officially on the team despite having lived in the palace since she was 8. Slim, pretty, and significantly endowed on her chest, she caught the eyes of men (and some women) wherever she went, regardless of what she did or didn’t do. It didn’t matter where she would be in the palace when someone else would give her a once-over - her mother, the head chef, would find out about it. 

Musette walked through the dark halls with her head down, recalling the specific incident that had set her mother off this time. The tailor that worked with Aspen’s wardrobe - Stitch? - had bumped into her earlier, and made the mistake of smiling at her, holding the door to the laundry open for her, offered to help carry some of the loads she’d been struggling with. She’d refused, obviously, as politely as she could, same as she did any other guy. 

It didn’t make a difference to her mother. Musette turned just about every guy away. She wore her mother’s stained, massively oversized uniforms, even wearing a black turtleneck beneath for added bulk. Kept her head down. And she’d still spent her evening being dragged around the apartment by her long, golden hair. Punched. Slapped. Being called a whore. It was worse than the time her mother had found out about her misguided hook-up with one of the guardsmen in the greenhouse - and that had been ugly.

After an eternity of walking in the dark (save for the moonlight coming in through the windows), she finally reached Aspen’s bedroom, the door at the absolute end of the northern wing, looking exactly the same as every other gaudy, fancy door she’d passed. She knocked on the door. “Aspen?” No answer.

Aspen had been incredibly eager in extending her friendship since Musette had first arrived at the palace, but there had been reluctance on Musette’s part. A princess should not be friends with a staff member, especially one with as many misshapen skeletons in the closet as Musette. Her mother had not-so-delicately hinted how she felt about the situation. So their friendship had mostly existed behind the scenes of palace life. All the same, Aspen had stressed her open door policy to Musette - anytime, any reason, just come.

Musette reached for the knob, only to find the door already cracked open. Surprised, Musette stuck her head in. “Aspen?”

The room was empty, except for Jack curled up in the exact center of the bed like a ghostly powdered donut. It was never exactly _clean_ in Aspen’s room, as she refused cleaning assistance from the staff, but it was somehow even messier than it usually was. There were clothes strewn across her desk, makeup table, and all over the floor. Like a bomb had gone off in a laundry basket.

A thin, soft sweater in a rosy shade of pink caught Musette’s eye. Aspen lived in greys and blacks, with the occasional blue. 

“Ah, Sofi’s back.” Musette looked over at Jack, who had woken and was watching her with large eyes. “I bet you love that.”

Jack let out a deep, scratchy yowl.

If Sofi was back and they weren’t in the room at this hour, that meant something stupid was going on. Musette was no stranger to the half-baked bad plans Aspen and Sofi could talk each other into. Tired as she was, Musette wanted no part of it. She leaned over to give Jack a small kiss on his fuzzy head on her way back out.

_“I actually didn’t think they were allowed to be alone with each other anymore,”_ Musette thought to herself as she pulled the door shut behind her properly. She would come looking for them later, maybe. _“Not after last time.”_

Normally, Musette would’ve dragged her feet on her way back to the hub on a night like this, but something didn’t feel quite right in the northern wing. Even though it was still and empty, she kept feeling the hair on the back of her neck prickling up, triggering her to look anxiously over her shoulder every couple of steps. Even the shadows of the statues and other pieces that had been set out on display were freaking her out, striking an odd resemblance to crows. It was all very unsettling - and Musette found herself speed-walking as fast as she could out of the northern wing, directly into someone standing just outside the archway.

“Musette?” Musette, who had been falling backwards, was caught mid-fall by Nexus, Aspen’s advisor, current regent of the kingdom (at least for the next month), and He Who Ran Everything, Especially Things That Shouldn’t Even Be His Responsibility. “Why are you out and about? And what’s happened to your eye?”

Nexus’s face, still admittedly handsome for an older man, was studying hers closely, his blue eyes lingering on the swelling and bruising. 

“I tripped,” Musette quickly lied, unconvincingly. "I tripped, and I couldn’t sleep. So I decided to take a walk.”

“If you say so.” He knew it was a lie, and they both knew that he knew. Nexus sighed, and turned back to the round window he had been looking out of before Musette had crashed into him. His face was reflected back in the frosty glass, his stubble and tired expression overlaid on a quiet night outside. “I can’t fault you for taking a walk. I’ve made a habit out of it myself. It’s why I’m here right now, even though I should be back with Wintergreen.”

Musette nodded politely, trying to think of a way to exit gracefully before he also noticed the stench of vodka on her dress, the scratches on her arms, or the places on her scalp where she’d bled after her mother had yanked her hair out. “If it wasn’t so cold, I’d go for a walk outside.”

“Well, this _is_ a winter island. Mind you, I’ve lived here for years and I’m still not used to it.” He wrapped his arms around himself and gave a shudder as though he were cold even inside. The hub, of course, was perfectly warm, despite being such an expansive area in the palace.

“I’m not either,” Musette admitted. She’d known Nexus since he had first hired her mother, but this was the longest conversation she’d had with him in years.

“Oh?” Nexus looked away from the window to glance at her. “I feel as though Colette may have mentioned this in passing. Where are you from?”

“The Red Line,” Musette answered, trying to sound casual as she leaned against the wall beside Nexus, arms tightly folded over her chest. It wasn’t necessarily a topic she liked to talk about, ever.

Nexus gave her a warm smile that made him look slightly less tired for the briefest moment. “Ah, I wouldn’t have guessed that.”

“And you?” Musette could hear footsteps echoing from somewhere in the hub, but she couldn’t figure out what direction it was coming from. Multiple sets of footsteps, and getting closer. She glanced around at the top level where they stood and saw they were alone - them and that giant eyesore of a chandelier that hung between floors. Nexus had gone back to looking out of the window, his glazed-over eyes seeing nothing. _“How does he not hear that?”_

“I’m not from nearly as far away as you. I’m still a native of the North Blue. Just not Hoarfrost.” He turned away from the window to face her, taking a pack of cigarettes and a silver lighter from the breast pocket of the suit he alway wore beneath his lab coat. “You don’t mind, do you? I don’t want to put you out.”

Two sets of footsteps were getting closer still, and now there were voices too. Musette looked nervously at the open doorway some way behind Nexus, where a set of stairs led from the ground level right to the top. “Not to change the subject, but I think someone is coming.”

Nexus turned around, also looking right towards the stairs. The footsteps were almost on them, and Musette could hear giggling. “Who the hell is up at this hour?”

“...not sure why you always need to walk behind me…”

“....best view is from behind, it’s the best view in the house....”

“Ah.” Musette wasn’t sure what she had expected. She dipped into a preemptive bow, her hair swinging into her face as Aspen and Sofi exploded out of the stairwell, chattering loudly and getting handsy with each other. “Good evening your highness, my lady.”

Nexus looked extremely irritated, lighting his cigarette as he advanced on them both. The close-cropped hair on the back of his head was fully grey, Musette could see, and his neck was getting red. “What the actual hell do you two think you’re doing out of bed?”

Sofi, standing behind Aspen, one hand grabbing her chest and the other sliding between her legs, quickly snapped her hands back to herself, her already-large brown eyes getting even larger at the sight of Nexus. “Why are _you_ up?” She shot back, clearly devoid of any good explanation on her part.

Aspen ignored Nexus, peering around him to grin at Musette. “Musette! Drop the formal act. Are you coming up with us for a sleepover?” Her face fell slightly as she got a better look at her. “What happened to your eye?”

“UNLIKE the two of you, Musette worked all day. That means she needs some rest, not to be subjected to the live-action erotica you two would perform for her,” Nexus snapped, puffing hard on his cigarette and blowing smoke towards the ceiling. Usually far more patient with both Aspen and Sofi, he sounded exceptionally tired and fed up at that moment. “You two need to get back in bed.”

Aspen touched her hand to her collar, looking taken aback. “I would never. We both know Musette is straight.”

“Unfortunately,” Sofi chimed in, winking at Musette. She strode over to the same window Nexus had been looking out of just a few moments before, leaning against it as she smiled at Musette. The smile came off as forced and fake to Musette, like it wasn’t reaching her eyes, which were worried and tired. “You can come hang out with us if you want.”

“I promise I won’t let Sofi get weird with you,” Aspen assured her seriously. 

Nexus jabbed a finger at the archway marking the entry to the northern wing. “Bed. I will find somewhere for Musette to sleep that _isn’t_ with either of you.”

Aspen sighed and nodded, giving Musette one last concerned, lingering look before turning to the north wing. Sofi hesitated for a brief moment, hanging back, mouth open as though she wanted to say something.

Nexus pointed again. Sofi shook her head and turned away, following Aspen closely.

“Not sure what I’m supposed to do with them sometimes,” Nexus muttered, more to himself than to Musette. His cigarette was raining ashes onto the plush, navy carpet as he sucked it into nothing. He pulled another one out of the pack. “They’re older now but it’s like I’m still handling the same two 8-year-old girls they used to be. It’s like herding cats.

“I understand,” Musette assured him, not understanding at all. She looked out the window herself, pressing her nose to the glass. The view of the woods surrounding the palace was lovely, and she could even make out some of the dimmed lights of the city further to the north. The trees still looked frosted after the earlier blizzard, capped in heavy snow that had likely frozen in place. At the trunks, Musette thought she could see strange darkness at the base of every tree - animals? Heat hares and bramble-antlered moose were pretty common.

And then she saw - _truly_ saw - and jerked back hard from the window.

Nexus caught her reaction, and his expression changed back from irritation to concern. “What? What is it?” He came beside her, pressing his nose to the window, the smoke from his new cigarette burning her eyes lightly and obscuring her vision. He cupped his hands around his eyes, looking around, before his gaze was drawn to the tree trunks. “ _Fucking_ hell.”

Stuck to every trunk, from the base to where the branches sprouted, were the bodies of different kinds of birds, large and small, all with their heads torn off. Loose feathers sat atop the snow on the ground, leaving dark patches in the moonlight. Pooled around the trunks were dark, shining puddles that had iced over, and Musette had a nasty suspicion what they were.

“I swear on my _life_ that was not there just 15 minutes ago.” Nexus looked both vexed and panicked as he dug around in his various suit pockets. “If it’s not one goddamn thing it’s another. My lab results, Germa’s visit, cults, it’s just _another goddamn thing_.” He finally pulled a small handheld transponder out of a hidden pocket in his coat. “MACE.”

 _“Germa?”_ That was something Musette recognized. Everyone in the palace knew of Germa. _“They’re coming?”_

Mace, co-captain of the palace guards, answered promptly, the transponder coming to life in Nexus’s hand. “Nexus, sir!” His deep bass of a voice boomed. “It’s Mace.”

“What the hell is going on outside?” Nexus had not moved from the window, nor taken his eyes from the birds. Musette, feeling uneasy and exposed on the top floor of the wide open palace hub, stepped closer to him. “I’m looking from a window on the top floor, towards the northern wing, and there are birds stuck to the tree trunks out here.”

“Birds?” Mace sounded confused. “You’re calling me about birds in trees?”

“Headless birds,” Musette whispered, correcting him.

“ _Headless_ birds, Mace.”

“OH, okay, that does make more sense. Likely from the trespassers we’ve been rounding up all night, sir,” Mace lightly answered, not sounding worried or even slightly creeped out by the thought of headless birds stuck all over trees. “Bunch of weirdos, wearing crow masks - wondering if it’s some kind of sex thing. It might be a sex thing, you never know with people these days -”

“Mace,” Nexus firmly interrupted him, managing to look even more tired than he had with Aspen and Sofi. “What trespassers? Why was I not alerted to this earlier?”

“We put a call through to your office, sir, but nobody answered.” Mace’s naturally loud voice seemed to shake the air around Nexus as he held the transponder. “We’d taken out most of the trash, hauled them to the holding facility on the grounds, but some of them might have gotten away...they do seem to run awfully fast…”

Every hair on Musette’s body prickled somewhat at the thought of strangers like that just free and loose on the palace grounds. The palace had always seemed like a fortress, safe and protected on all sides from this sort of threat - not there had been this sort of threat before that she could recall. Musette tugged gently on Nexus’s sleeve. “They have no way to get _in_ the palace, do they?”

Nexus shook his head, still staring at the transponder in his palm, as though he could will it to show Mace the disappointed glare on his face. “No, that couldn’t happen. Even outside of guards, the palace is protected. Security is a strong focus of the kingdom’s research and development sectors, I’m sure you know. Technological might and all that.”

“Is this ‘technological might’ the reason I have to do a finger scan to get in and out of the kitchens?” Musette had been meaning to ask someone about that. It was really inconvenient.

“What? Oh, for fuck’s sake...I told them to install it on the door from the kitchens leading _outside_ not the fucking kitchen door leading to the rest of the palace.” Nexus began stress-rubbing his face with his free hand. Musette could tell this was not the night he’d set out to have.

“Should...you send a guard up to Aspen’s room?”

A strange, startled look came over Nexus’s face, and he gripped the transponder tightly in his hand. Despite already looking pale and drawn, what little color he had drained from his face. “Yes, I - I think that is a good idea. I will page Priya and Anja.”

“They’re with me,” Mace chimed in. “They’re how we caught most of these weirdos. Can’t beat having devil fruit users on the payroll.”

“Priya can stay, I’d imagine the webs are useful. Please send Anja up immediately to Princess Aspen’s room. Stress to her that she does _not_ need to go in.”

Musette began nervously shifting from foot to foot, feeling more uneasy with every passing minute. She twisted her half apron - once white, now a dingy, stained grey - in her hands as she looked around the hub. She’d never thought of how uncomfortable of an open space the hub was, particularly with that giant skylight. “I think I should go back to my apartment.”

“No no no,” Nexus distractedly waved a hand at Musette. “Mace - please reach back out on _this_ line after you’ve secured the perimeter, please. I don’t know why _any_ calls are directed to my office by default; that is a disaster waiting to happen.”

Mace chuckled. Musette could hear branches snapping and shouting in the background. “Will do, Nexus. You have a good night, Musette too.”

“Um. Night.” Musette chimed in timidly. 

Nexus shoved the transponder back into a pocket and began rubbing his face with both hands, groaning and mumbling to himself, turning away from the window to avoid looking at the dead birds any longer. “Like I don’t have damn near enough on my plate as it is without this occult nonsense…”

“Like…the upcoming visit from Germa?” Musette had picked that interesting little tidbit out of his frustrated rant from earlier, but had opted not to say anything due to being freaked out by headless birds. 

Nexus sputtered. “Oh. You heard about that.”

“From you, like 5 minutes ago,” she pointed out. She did not like lingering in the hub, and they had been standing in one place too long for everything strange that was happening. Her back was aching, and the smell of the vodka that had soaked into her clothes was making her feel ill. “May I please be excused?”

“To go back to your mother? No, I don’t think so.” Nexus straightened out his lab coat and took a breath, avoiding looking out the window. “I have my guards protecting us from the outside, so the least I can do is protect us on the inside.”

Musette stayed silent, giving Nexus a small once-over. She could see the holes in his sleeves, cigarette burns on his coat, stains on his pants. He didn’t really look the part of a hero. “Are you worried about her highness?”

“ _Aspen_?” Nexus snorted. “She can certainly handle herself...but that will be Anja’s worry for tonight. I am more concerned about you.” Despite looking world-weary and burnt out, he gave her a warm smile. “Wintergreen and I have a spare room in our apartment. I would like very much if you would make use of it for the next few days. Please.”

Flushing with embarrassment, Musette stared down at her beat-up white shoes, nestled in the thick rug, and wished she could melt into the floor and disappear. “I don’t want to inconvenience you or Wintergreen,” she mumbled, talking more to her feet than Nexus.

“Nonsense.” Nexus nodded towards the entryway to the northwestern wing, its arch carved and decorated with carvings of reindeer. That wing of staff accommodations was reserved for the higher-ups in the palace hierarchy - the captains of the palace guard, the chief botanist, and - in Nexus and Wintergreen’s cases - the regent and the head medic. He beckoned for Musette to follow him. “Aspen would beat me if I just left you to yourself tonight. You can stay with Wintergreen and I and you can decompress for a few days. Away from your mother.”

Musette felt her face burn an even deeper red than she thought possibly. She followed Nexus in silence as she tried to will herself to die of shame - though she was grateful to no longer be in the hub. The glow of the full moon followed them through open windows all the way down the central corridor of the northwestern wing. It gave Musette an eerie feeling to know that there were crow people loose just outside.

“Ah...here we are.” Nexus stopped at the door at the very end of the hall. Made out of wood stained white, the frame above was carved with animals sacred to the kingdom: the heat hare, the bramble-antlered moose, the frosted crow. All of them were in resplendent positions around an ornate snowflake, the kingdom’s decidedly unoriginal sigil. It was the mark of quarters reserved specifically for the regent. “Just set your shoes inside by the door, and let’s keep our voices down. Wintergreen is likely in bed by now.”

The inside of the apartment was more luxe than Musette had anticipated, with cream-colored wallpaper trimmed in gold, and hardwood floors of dark walnut. The furniture that she could see - a few chaise lounges, a low table - were equally opulent, boasting carved legs and gold ornamentation. She slipped her shoes off and set them beside the door, and Nexus waved her down a small hallway.

“We’ve never used this room,” he whispered, pushing the door open. “But it did come pre-furnished.”

At first, Musette could not process what she was looking at. Nexus and Wintergreen’s spare bedroom was fancier than even Aspen’s room. The navy carpet was thick and plush, and the walls were a soft off-white. An oversized four poster bed, carved from a dark wood and hung with diaphanous silver curtains, was the focal point of the room. There was a desk of similar material in the corner, with a cushioned chair upholstered in fabric matching the chaise lounges from before. A large window, flanked by heavy grey curtains, gave what would have been a gorgeous view of the woods on any other night. Nexus quickly tiptoed past Musette and pulled the curtains closed.

“Nexus,” Musette whispered, her hands at her mouth. “I _cannot_ stay here.”

“I insist. Please.” He gave a short bow and a lock of blonde hair, streaked with grey, fell into his face. “Nobody else is using it; this room will sit empty if you don’t.”

Musette’s back throbbed in pain from her earlier beating, and she could feel every bone in her feet, even against the soft carpet. The bed was looking very inviting. “Then I won’t protest.”

“Good! Good.” Nexus backed out into the hallway again, inclining his head to Musette once more. “And - I think I mentioned this earlier - _please_ don’t worry about work for the next few days. I know someone in need of a mental vacation when I see them.”

“Aspen and Sofi -” Musette started. They hadn’t been told of the trespassers.

“I’m certain they’re just fine.” Nexus’s voice was calm, but his voice was slightly strained. “I did send Anja to them. Just one more stressful thing after the other, you know?”

“Like...Germa’s upcoming visit?” Musette hadn’t forgotten, and Nexus had not given her a straight answer before. 

Nexus went pale green. “Ah. Yes.”

“Does the staff need to start preparing?” A royal visit was the highest priority for any and all palace staff as it was, but a visit from the Vinsmokes of Germa was quite different than the Nefertaris of Alabasta. Tensions would be high for everyone. “I didn’t get any notice from Mocha.”

“Because I haven’t informed Mocha or Espresso yet. I haven’t told anyone.” Nexus tried to smile, and it came off as more of a grimace. “Except Captain Gogo. And Anja. And Aspen, sort of, y’know.”

“Sort of?” That was not very reassuring. Aspen couldn’t stand hearing Ichiji’s name without flipping her lid. News of a visit was the sort of thing that would push her to destroy at least part of the palace in rage. 

Nexus sighed, and Musette could see he was depleting any energy he had left by discussing this with her. “She’ll explain when you see her. They’ll be here on the 11th.”

 _“November_ 11th?” Musette asked, incredulous. “That’s a month away. _And_ it’s Aspen’s birthday.” How was the entire palace still standing at all if Aspen truly knew?

“ _Enough_ about such...unpleasantness.” He began to pull the door closed behind him, his eyelids beginning to sag closed. “Get some sleep. Our cleaning lady will be around in the morning but I’ll leave a note not to wake you.”

This time, Musette dropped the subject, giving Nexus another bow and keeping her head low until she could hear him walking away. As his footsteps faded away, Musette slowly turned around, looking at her room in awe. She hadn’t noticed the twin nightstands with the lamps shaped from blown glass, or the crystal glass and water pitcher. It made her think back, briefly, to the apartment shared with her mother. Certainly, it had been nice at one point, but not anymore - it reeked of alcohol and cigarettes, and the walls had begun to sweat yellow when they were damp. Musette slept on a pull-out couch, and had done so for 10 years - her mother had insisted to Mocha that a one bedroom was more than enough space when they had moved in.

A snowflake-shaped clock beside the window read ten til three. By now, her mother was sure to be passed out in her room, on the floor or on top of the bed, an empty liquor bottle within arm’s reach. If her mother’s boyfriend, Scallion, were there, they’d both be naked. She’d sleep like a baby and do it all over again the next day.

Musette - not for the first time that day - felt a thick bubble of loathing for her mother beginning to inflate inside her. Her mother had never been a doting or loving mother to begin with, and considering what she’d been through, Musette had done her best to accept that. But the older (and more eye-catching) Musette became, the more vitriolic and spiteful her mother was.

_“Fuck_ her,” Musette snapped aloud, the hatred in her voice catching her off-guard. She would never say such a thing to her mother in person. Shaking her head furiously, hoping to cast off her anger, she sat down on the edge of the bed and began to undress.

She pulled her socks off, embarrassed even by herself of how they were more hole than sock at this point. Then her apron, untied from around her waist and allowed to drop on the floor with her socks. She unbuttoned the front of her dress, pushing the baggy fabric over her shoulders, off her arms, and it fell on its own to her feet. Musette was almost too tired to yank her black turtleneck over her head but she managed it somehow.

The difference between her clothes and her underwear was night and day, thanks to Aspen. Nicer than any other pieces of her wardrobe, the set she wore was the deepest emerald green, trimmed in black lace, and it was one of the sets Aspen had gifted her for her birthday earlier that year.

“I’m not personally a lingerie person but I wanted you to have something pretty,” Aspen had admitted as Musette had held up each delicate piece of lace, blushing darker and darker. “Also I had these hand-made by Stitch and Thread so they fit your measurements exactly.”

At this point in time, it was the only underwear that fit her, with Musette having outgrown her mother’s hand-me-down bras starting when she was 14. She reached up her back and struggled to unhook it for a moment, before succeeding and letting her eyes roll back the relief of feeling free. Even with full and heavy breasts that were practically the size of pumpkins, the feeling of no bra was one of the _best_ feelings in the world. 

Undressed enough for her liking, Musette crawled up the bed and slithered between the sheets, shivering at how cool and smooth they felt against her skin. Her head hit the pillows and sank in slightly, striking the perfect balance between firm and squishy. In a matter of seconds she was out cold, falling into a deeper sleep than she’d known in years.

Musette was unsure how long she’d been asleep when she woke up suddenly, all too aware that someone was stroking her cheek.

Eyes wide open, Musette stared at the stranger, who had a round baby face with peculiar dots painted on in a strange pattern. Her hair was bright orange and hung in braids around her face, with colorful ribbons tied at the ends. She smiled at Musette as she crouched by her bedside, stroking her cheek all the while.

At a loss for how to respond, Musette finally managed an, “Um. Hello.”

“You are awake!” The stranger exclaimed excitedly, springing back to a full standing position from her crouch. Her full stature wasn’t much to speak of - she looked scarcely taller than Aspen. “I am so sorry for waking. I only came for the laundry -” she indicated a basket at her feet, with Musette’s discarded uniform inside. “ -But you looked so lovely. I am sorry to the Miss Musette for waking.”

Her voice was melodic and soft, but her accent was thick and difficult to place. Musette sat up slowly, holding the blanket over her bare chest. “I’m sorry...who are you?”

“I am Khoya!” Khoya bowed low to a bewildered Musette, orange braids slapping her in the face. “Laundress for the laundering of dresses and cleaner for the cleaning of all things. Or so they tell me.” She pointed at Musette with the same finger that had been stroking her face just moments before. “You are the Miss Musette. It means ‘song.’”

Musette nodded slowly, sneaking a glance over at the window. Through a sliver in the curtains, she could see that the sky was still dark. 

Khoya held up both hands. “You heard of the trespassers before? The Mr. Mace caught all of them. Him and the spider lady. There is no cause for concern for the Miss Musette.”

The dress Khoya wore was a better-fitting, cleaner version of Musette’s own staff uniform, save for a few colorful scarves knotted around her waist and neck. Still, Musette could not recall having ever seen her before - and she felt she’d remember. “I don’t think we’ve met.”

Again, Khoya bowed. “I only wanted to see this beauty, this Musette Torte that every man and boy turns his head to in the palace - and sometimes the women and girls too. You are beautiful, just as they say.”

Musette hoped they didn’t. If her mother knew such things...she blushed uncomfortably, feeling very self-conscious of her bruised and scratched face.

“Beautiful. But you always look so sad.”

“I’m tired,” Musette shot back. “I wasn’t ready to wake up.”

“Ah, again, I am sorry to the Miss Musette. I have done such a thing, many times, to the young princess.” Khoya paused, tapping a finger to her chin. “She always tells me to leave. But no, you are more sad than tired.”

Musette gave Khoya a dirty look. She was not going to discuss everything wrong with her life with an eccentric stranger while she lay naked in bed in her boss’s spare bedroom.

Khoya picked up her laundry basket and slung it onto her hip, beaming a toothy smile at the cranky Musette. “I cannot wait for a stop to such sadness. I want the Miss Musette to be happy. And she will be happy soon.”

Musette was very, very quickly feeling exhausted all over again. “And why would that be?”

Without an answer, Khoya turned to leave, moving on her tiptoes as though she were dancing. She began humming and moving her free arm in loose waves through the air.

Immediately, Musette regretted asking. “Nevermind, really, I’m just gonna -”

“The beauty with hair like the sun…” Khoya quietly sang, opening the door and slipping back out into the hallway. “And the prince as handsome as spring…”

She pulled the door shut behind her, abruptly cutting off her song.

Rolling onto her back, Musette slowly pulled the blanket up and over her face in case Khoya decided to come back. She blinked once slowly, and then twice, hoping to fall back asleep as easily as she had the first time. After the 10th try, she began to feel extremely irritated.

“ _What the fuck was that all about_?” She made a mental note to ask Aspen about this weird staff member. Who wakes up a complete stranger by touching their face? Musette wondered, briefly, if things were as weird in Alabasta, Germa, or Dressrosa.

_Maybe_ Dressrosa.

Khoya had mentioned Musette would be happy soon, which was the part that irritated Musette the most. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d been happy for more than a few hours at a time. _“Maybe Khoya assumed I’d be happy to go back to sleep,”_ Musette reasoned to herself. It made sense. She could sleep in peace, knowing Nexus and Wintergreen were in the same apartment, and her mother and Scallion weren’t. Scallion in particular enjoyed rousing Musette from her sleep in the worst ways.

But she didn’t want to think about that.

And of course Khoya had to leave her with an obnoxious earworm of a song - and not even a complete one. Musette pulled one of the fluffy pillows over her face in the hopes of muffling it in her head. It was the worst non-answer to a question she’d received in a bit, her mother’s slaps notwithstanding.

_“Just waltzes in while I’m sleeping,”_ Musette grumbled to herself, trying again to force herself back to sleep. _“Gets up close and personal, says some cryptic shit about being happy, steals my clothes…”_

Musette went rigid beneath the soft blankets. _Her clothes_. She didn’t have any other clothes to wear, aside from what she’d left on the floor. And this Khoya person had skipped off with them.

“ _Wintergreen will probably help me out_.” Musette coaxed herself into un-tensing. It wasn’t ideal, and it was still embarrassing, but that was a problem for Future Musette. She rolled back onto her side, careful not to aggravate her black eye as she clutched the pillow behind her head. She could feel the soft sheets sliding against her bare legs as she repositioned them. It felt like the bed itself was trying to soothe her back to sleep. Her eyelids finally began to feel heavy again, and impossible to keep open.

_“It would be nice to be happy,”_ Musette thought to herself before giving over to sleep, wondering what it would be like to be a happy person for more than a day.


	5. ASPEN II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- this is one of the Frankenstein'd chapters from all my editing and I can't say I'm happy with it BUT I can say this is as good as it's going to get  
> \- if I do decide to go back and heavily edit it some more I'll....make a note or something.

“You are aware of why you are here.”

“No.” Aspen answered, for once not lying to the Hoarfrost Council, rubbing her arms through her sweater sleeves. It didn’t matter how warm the palace was - the council room was always cold. It didn’t jive with Aspen having nicknamed it ‘the lizard tank’ - and that ate at her.

Torvig, the alpha lizard, laughed aloud at Aspen’s answer, shuffling through the stack of papers in front of him with liver-spotted boney hands. The other lizards, sitting in a row on either side of him, joined in, sounding more like they were wheezing for air. Aspen wished they were. “Very cute, your highness. I’m sure your advisor has informed you as to the nature of this meeting. There is no need to spend more time on that.”

Nexus - conveniently enough - was not present, and had _not_ , in fact, told Aspen anything about the meeting, other than when it was (obviously) and that it was mandatory for her to attend (unfortunately). He was usually right beside in the council meetings, equally unhappy and equally freezing his ass off, despite the perpetually lit fireplace the dominated the wall behind where the council sat. The room itself was otherwise unremarkable, with oddly colorless walls, a dearth of ornamentation, and bare hardwood. It had been rebuilt from the ground up following Aspen’s legendary tantrum almost 11 years earlier - and it was just as uninviting as before.

“I wasn’t told anything -” Aspen started.

Lars, one of the smaller lizards to Torvig’s right, waved off Aspen with a hand sporting fingernails so long, they were practically claws. “I’m sure he’ll get you up to speed at a later time, then. First - a smaller concern - I hear the young Duchess of Åker is back.”

Aspen didn’t like them talking about Sofi in any capacity. She narrowed her eyes and squeezed herself tighter in her arms. “Yes.”

“I do hope you’re not...gallivanting around with her the way you were before.” Lars did not try to mask his disgust, wrinkling his bulbous nose as he looked down it at her. The other lizards muttered unhappily to each other, eyeing Aspen as though she were some dead bug and not the princess of the kingdom they purported to serve.

Aspen did not answer, opting instead to lift her hands to her face, breathing on them to try and get feeling back in her finger, which was even paler than usual, the nail beds a light blue. She was regretting having promised Nexus she wouldn’t destroy the council room again. 

“It’s no matter,” Torvig assured Lars, reaching over to him and gripping his wrist on the wooden tabletop. “It’ll assuredly come to a stop...in a month. He glanced back at Aspen, and then down at the stack of papers in front of him. “We have reports we expect you to study.”

Reports? That was _Nexus’s_ job. He was still regent - Aspen wouldn’t take over fully until her birthday in another two weeks - and even then it was absolutely her intent to delegate all that to a man who had years of practice (Nexus, again). “I’m not allowed to discuss business regarding the kingdom with you with the regent present,” Aspen informed them, her voice almost as chilly as the air in the room. She’d learned _that_ lesson the hard way before. “So either go get Nexus or go fuck -”

“It’s not business regarding the kingdom…” Torvig chuckled in a way Aspen did not like at all. He adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses with thin fingers as the other hand picked up a thing packet of papers that had been clipped together at the corner. Aspen could see some kind of small photograph had been attached as well. Torvig pulled the photograph aside, his hand blocking the image itself to Aspen, and he shoved the papers across the table at her. “It’s business regarding _you_. This is one of the reports we decided would be...helpful.”

Aspen slowly picked up the packet of papers, not taking her eyes off Torvig and the rest of the reptile house, nearly indistinguishable from each other in their matching grey suits, terrible hairlines, and copious body odor. She chanced a glance at the top paper, noticing the kingdom’s crest was missing from the top of the page. Whatever it was - it didn’t seem to be business pertaining to the kingdom. Which meant Aspen had no grounds to get up and leave just yet.

“What is it?” Aspen asked, locking eyes with Torvig, who continued to smile.

“Just review it, your highness. It may be helpful to you.”

“Unless it’s detailed instructions on how to dismantle this entire council, I highly _doubt_ it will be helpful to me,” Aspen grumbled, reluctantly picking up the packet. It wasn’t very big, at most a few pages - so she wasn’t really sure how much useful information could be contained within. There was a birthday listed - not her own, so not important - along with basic vital information about someone else’s height - 6’1, as though it mattered. ‘Taller than me’ was the only metric that mattered to Aspen. Blood type S (RH-) - same as Aspen’s. It seemed to be a collected profile on someone.

She could feel her eyes glazing over the more she read. “I don’t think this is as helpful as you were imagining.”

No council member responded, still watching her.

“Can I go now?”

“Keep reading, please.”

Aspen begrudgingly kept reading, positive that she was losing feeling in her fingertips as she turned the page. More boring bullshit she didn’t care about, what a surprise. The page after that was boring as well. A note about favorite foods caught her eye for a brief moment. “I guess strawberries are okay.” Aspen herself preferred raspberries and blueberries, but strawberries could suffice in a pinch.

Torvig smiled at her in a way that showed yellowing teeth. “Are they, your highness?”

“I’m not going to bond with some stranger over my ambivalent feelings for strawberries.” 

There was a physical description on the last page, with mention of the profile subject’s overall body build and muscle mass - that caught Aspen’s eye for the briefest moment. “There’s a typo, on the last page -” Aspen started to point out.

“No typos, your highness,” Torvig assured her, grinning the same greasy smile.

“Right.” Aspen read the note regarding muscle mass again. If it were accurate, the subject in question was likely a very impressive specimen. She couldn’t help but wonder what that would look like. “Is this a guy or a girl?”

“A man, your highness.” The grin got wider.

Aspen was beginning to feel uneasy, despite her curiosity being piqued. “OK, thanks for this and all that.” Stitch was slender, but he wasn’t really _muscled_. Nexus looked like he’d been pretty impressive when he was younger, but that was years earlier and he was like an uncle to her. Sofi was Sofi and Sofi never worked out unless she was being forced to, in some way. She couldn’t help but try to imagine what that percentage of muscle mass would look like in person. “Can I go now?”

Torvig extended a hand across the narrow table to Aspen, holding the photo from earlier image-side down. “Would you like the accompanying photograph we were supplied, your highness?”

She didn’t accept the photo, having been suddenly struck by a very important question she had not thought to ask. “Who is this about?”

“Excuse me, your highness?” Torvig’s smile slipped for the briefest moment, overtaken by a look of loathing aimed at his princess. “What does that matter? I can tell by the look on your face that _some_ of the things described in the profile are...appealing to you.”

“Who is this about?” Aspen asked again, blushing in spite of herself, Torvig’s non-answer proving to her that she was asking the right questions. She gripped the papers tightly, the joints in her hands aching and slow to move from the cold. 

Torvig again tried to hand her the photo to Aspen. “Here’s the photo we were given.”

Giving Torvig a nasty look of her own (despite her teeth beginning to chatter), Aspen snatched the photograph out of his hand and laid it face-down on the report. She was more curious than ever to at least take a _look_ \- but she’d never give Torvig or the other scaly bastards the satisfaction of doing it in front of them.

“Are the other reports more of the same?” Aspen asked, putting on the sweetest voice she could manage without gagging. 

The chuckles and snickers from the council evaporated. With a grimace, Torvig pushed the remaining stack of papers across the table to Aspen, who stacked them on top of the original report she’d been handed. She didn’t bother even glancing at the others as she stood up, her wooden chair dragging on the floor behind her. The council was completely silent as Aspen walked past them to the door, the knob like ice despite being close to the fireplace.

“Aspen.” Torvig dropped all respectful pretense. She glanced over her shoulder at him as he remained seated, hands clasped together, flanked by the lackeys who would do anything he asked. His glasses glinted in the firelight.

“Torvig.” Aspen had half a mind to throw the reports in the fire, in front of them. Nexus wouldn’t like that.

He said nothing else, settling for holding her with a contemptuous glare from his seat.

Aspen quickly left, keeping her head down, the papers tucked under her arm.

Upon re-entering the palace hub, she slammed right into Sofi, who had been hovering just outside the entrance to the southern wing and jumped out in front of her when she heard Aspen coming. The papers flew all over as if a bomb had hit, and Aspen sprawled out directly on top of Sofi on a highly polished floor that smelled strongly of pine needles. The staff had been on quite the crazy cleaning kick lately.

“Sofi.” Aspen said, scowling, her hair in her eyes again. “What the _fuck_.”

Looking confused at what had just happened, Sofi took a second to respond in the exact wrong way. Touching a hand to Aspen’s shirt, she toyed with the row of buttons that trailed to her sternum. “We can turn this into a positive.”

Grunting angrily, Aspen got back to her feet and tried to push her hair out of her eyes. A few staff members had stopped in passing, and were putting the papers back into a stack. Trying to look cheerful, Aspen waved them off. “No no, you don’t have to do that.” She gave Sofi a dirty look as she got to her feet, grinning sheepishly. “ _She_ should be doing that.”

One of the staffers, a short girl with purple hair named Torin, smiled back at Aspen, inclining her head. “No worries, your highness. It’s just a few papers.”

“We need to keep this hub clean anyway,” the second staffer, a tall and heavy man named Glom added, inclining his head as well. “Maybe then it would be as much of a mess to clean in two weeks.”

“For my...birthday?” Aspen asked slowly, confused. She was missing something here, for certain. The palace never needed to be deep-cleaned just for her birthday. Unless her 19th was more important due to the regency coming to an end.

Sofi had wandered a few feet away, and was bending over to pick something up. “Who is this?” She asked, turning a photograph towards Aspen for a brief second before turning it back to herself. Sofi let out a giggle, and chewed on her lip. “Not _my_ type, but I know a good-looking man when I see one.”

Aspen whipped away from Torin and Glom, stomping over to Sofi and snatching the photograph out of her hands. “Give me that.”

“Bitch,” Sofi whined, making a sad face at the paper cut Aspen had just sliced into her palm. She lifted the hand to her mouth and licked away the small beads of blood that oozed out. “Seriously, who is that?”

Grabbing the papers under her arm again, Aspen walked away, moving a bit faster than was really necessary. A handful of other staffers passed with carpet cleaning supplies, brooms, and mops. Each of them paused briefly to give Aspen a small bow, which she returned without stopping. Everywhere she looked in the hub, there was no trash can. How had she never noticed the complete lack of trash cans in one of the most bustling areas of the palace? She was going to have words with Nexus about that.

“Wait _up_ you asshole.” Aspen could hear Sofi sprinting to try and catch up, her breathing already heavy. Sofi was not a fan of exerting herself, and either way, running in high heeled boots could not be easy. 

Aspen picked up the pace, using her telekinesis to provide an added boost of speed - she didn’t enjoy having to use this trick on Sofi, but she needed time to ditch the photo. Before Aspen could even really get going, though, she felt a hand brush the back of her arm, yanking free a good amount of the paper stack. The rest fell back to the floor again, fluttering off left and right. 

Sofi had launched herself directly at Aspen, and was now lying on her belly on the floor, quickly flipping through pages for the photograph she’d seen earlier. She let out a small cry of success as she hit gold, trying to hold the photo over her head but only managing to hold it at a slight angle in front of her. “FOUND IT.”

Aspen, outraged and slightly impressed that Sofi had caught her, grabbed the photo again.

The guy in the photo was certainly handsome enough, even by Aspen’s begrudging measure, in a black shirt with an upturned collar, and a tie that matched his red hair. On the half of his face not covered by hair, he had a strong, handsome jawline and a mouth twisted into a smirk. Only half his body was in the photo, but Aspen could make out muscles in his chest, the arms that were folded, and shoulders. He was slender, but certainly strong, from the looks of things. The muscle mass percentage noted in the report didn’t seem to be a typo after all.

His eyes were covered by sunglasses, but above, he had the unmistakable spiral eyebrows of the Vinsmokes of Germa.

Aspen, growing very angry at both the council and herself for having been even remotely interested in the earlier profile, tossed the photo at Sofi, who was getting back to her feet slowly, brushing off her pink and blue striped sweater. “You can have this.”

Sofi caught the picture before it hit the ground again, studying it. Both of her full, carefully filled-in eyebrows shot up. “Again, not my type, but if he was…” 

Seething in silent rage, Aspen collected the papers again. Torvig had most certainly been trying to con her into any kind of positive reaction to Ichiji, to use it against her when the fulfillment of the marriage contract was closer at hand. She was grateful she’d caught on quick, but they had definitely noticed some kind of positive reaction from her regarding his physical description. Aspen cursed herself. _“I know approximately zero people built like they claim he’s built. I’m human, not a robot, I’m_ **_allowed_ ** _to be curious.”_

WIth the muscles she’d noticed only the slightest hint of in the photo, she knew it wasn’t just a ‘claim.’ Aspen hated that she was curious still.

Sofi was watching her, mouth willed into a purposeful straight line. “I’m guessing from your reaction that _this_ is Prince Ichiji.”

Before Sofi could finish saying his name, Aspen had started walking away again, drifting in the direction of Nexus’s office on the top floor of the southern wing. Lately, he’d been out of office, hard at work on his research at the Royal Research Facility in the center of town, but if there was even the slightest chance he was in...she was going to tell him about how the council was trying to shove Ichiji down her throat _again_ , apropos of nothing.

Unfortunately, Sofi seemed to have gotten a second wind and followed right alongside Aspen, still holding that damn photo in a way that Aspen could see it. “Keeping in mind that this is an arranged marriage you were tricked into and have no interest in,” Sofi started by running down an entire list of disclaimers.

Gripping the railing of the spiral stairs twisting up the wall of the hub, right to the top floor of the southern wing, Aspen could feel her teeth grinding into nothing. 

“...And we have heard enough bad rumors about both Germa Kingdom and Germa 66 who, according to our own council, doesn’t even exist…”

Aspen wasn’t sure how her hand was still moving on the railing considering how much tighter she squeezed it with every damn word out of Sofi’s mouth.

“...And I am saying this as your best friend who loves you dearly and wants nothing more than to keep you by my side and in my bed forever…”

They reached the top floor and Aspen turned to march right through the archway into the southern wing, weaving through staff members who were wiping down sections of wall, spraying the windows, and spraying heavily perfumed aerosols all through the hallway. The thick smell of artificial lavender burned Aspen’s eyes and choked her, and she waved her free hand in front of her face to clear the air as the staffer doing the spraying meekly apologized.

“...You could most certainly have done _worse_ for a future husband,” Sofi concluded, having rattled off every disclaimer she could possibly think of before finally getting to the meat of her message.

“Just think, all the time in the world between when you started talking and when you stopped just now, and not once did you think, ‘Hm, maybe Aspen would prefer if I _shut the fuck up.’_ ” Aspen snapped, quickly side-stepping a staffer chasing after an automatic cart tearing down the hall loaded with towels.

“I’m just _saying_.” Sofi continued breezily, not watching where she was going and forcing multiple staffers to quickly move out of her way as they cleaned. “I hate him on principle but he is, at the very least, kind of hot.”

“Please don’t make me hit you.”

The corridor right in front of Nexus’s office seemed even busier than what they had already waded through, with scaffolding set up in front of the tall windows to clean even the highest panes. Two staffers were wrestling a large vacuum as they ran the hose up and down the richly velvet curtains. They stopped to bow to Aspen, and the vacuum quickly began to suck the curtain itself inside.

As the staffers shouted at each other and tried to wrestle the curtain free, Sofi side-eyed Aspen, who’d stopped to watch with mild interest. “The real question is, does seeing how attractive he is make you any more receptive to the match?

“Again: please don’t make me hit you.” Aspen did not elaborate any further. The answer was, of course, _no_. But if she gave even the slightest hint of vaguely agreeing with Sofi regarding his attractiveness…

“What are you doing??” Nexus came tearing out of his office, door flying open and banging into the wall, the knob leaving a crater. He looked even more harried that usual - his dark stubble was growing in thickly, and his hair sticking out in every direction looked as though it had not been brushed at all. “Turn off the vacuum! Turn it off!”

The vacuum had sucked in a significant tract of curtain, and was now dangling a few feet off the ground, vibrating. Thick smoke had begun to pour out of it, and it began to make ominous metallic grinding noises instead of its normal whirring. Both staffers were still yanking on it desperately, neither one listening to Nexus or thinking of turning it off.

Aspen looked down and, seeing the cord plugging into the wall right in front of her, bent over and unplugged it herself. The grinding noises stopped completely, and it hung motionless from the remaining curtain. The staffers who had been watching from the window scaffolding burst into fits of laughter, hanging onto each other and pointing at the staffers on the ground.

Nexus turned around, cigarette already between his lips, lighter in hand. He didn’t seem surprised to see Aspen or Sofi. “Come to watch the infinite struggle, girls?”

“Pass.” The fake floral smell had been replaced with the smell of burning dust, and Aspen didn’t really like that any better. She gestured for Nexus to come closer, which he did, lighting his cigarette and looking very tired. “Nexus. I had to meet with the council.”

“I am aware. I am, after all, the person who told you about it.” Nexus looked as though he was aware of the complaints that were coming, leaning against the wall and blowing smoke away from Aspen and Sofi. “It wasn’t for official kingdom business, was it?”

“No.” Aspen didn’t like how informed Nexus seemed. True, it was his business to know damn near everything in the kingdom, let alone just the palace, so she couldn’t take too much offense. “They gave me -”

Sofi cut across Aspen and shoved the photograph of Ichiji at Nexus. “Why are they giving her photos of this attractive asshole?”

“What?” Nexus did seem surprised at that, taking the photo from Sofi. He looked at it for a strangely long moment, an odd look in his eyes. “The council gave you this?”

“And basically an entire detailed-ass report on him, including his favorite foods, like _that_ is supposed to matter to me.” Aspen shoved the papers into his hands and he dropped most of them, not willing to sacrifice his cigarette. As they fell to the ground again, for the first time, Aspen noticed that the other packets had photos attached to them as well, as she caught glimpses of pink, blue, and green hair.

“Why are they giving her photos of him all out of the blue like this? Sofi demanded again, beginning to - finally - sound as unhappy as Aspen. “That doesn’t mean they’ve given him photos of her, does it? What photos have they given him? She’s dressed in them, right?”

Aspen gave Sofi a withering look. “How the fuck would they have photos of me undressed in the first place?”

Nexus looked at Aspen, eyebrows pushing together in further confusion, his cigarette dusting the carpet with ash. “What are you talking about? They’ve probably given you all of this in preparation for their visit in November.”

Aspen stared at Nexus. “ _What_ visit?”

“Germa’s visit in November. You overheard me telling Anja about it a couple days ago, don’t you remember?” Nexus’s confusion was morphing into panic. “Remember?”

Around them, the staffers that had been cleaning and laughing at each other fell into silence, all eyes on Aspen and Nexus. Even Sofi had taken several steps back as Aspen stared at Nexus, looking back and forth between them nervously.

“Germa is visiting in November?” November was in a week. Aspen could feel every muscle in her body locking up, frozen in place. “You _never_ told me about this.”

The staffers who had been eavesdropping began to sprint away in panic, knocking the scaffolding into the window, cracking several glass panes. Carts, aerosol cans, and a very broken vacuum cleaner were left discarded on the floor. Sofi backed even further away, looking over at the windows, which had begun to vibrate and flex in place.

Nexus dropped the photo and his cigarette, bracing both hands on Aspen’s shoulders as tightly as possible. The panic on his face was gone, and his jaw was set and clenched. “Do not do this here, Aspen. Do not. Do this. Here.”

The first row of window panes, closest to the ceiling, shattered, sending glass spraying down but narrowly missing all three of them. The snowstorm that had been howling just outside blew in, sending a arctic chill that bit straight to the bone. Then the second row exploded. And then the third row.

Aspen could _see_ Nexus shouting at her, Sofi pressed flat against the wall, her brown eyes wide, but she couldn’t hear anything. It was _unfair_ . Why were they coming? Didn’t she have another two years still to get out of ever having to see them? Why were they coming into _her home?_ Had everyone known except her? Suddenly, the vigorous cleaning of the hub and the southern wing made sense. The council pushing her a detailed profile of Ichiji’s likes and dislikes made _sense_. 

But Torin and Glom had mentioned something in two weeks, when she’d seen them in the hub. November started _next_ week. The week after that, though…

She tilted her head at Nexus, who was still furiously shaking her by her shoulders, making her hair whip around. “Are they coming on my birthday?”

He stopped for a beat, hesitating. 

The remaining panes in the closest six windows shattered in, and snow roared in past them. Sofi, appearing to have cut her losses, turned and bolted down the hallway where the staff had run, exerting more energy in a burst than she likely had in five years. Nexus was shouting loudly and Aspen could hear swear after swear as her hearing crept back, like someone slowly turning the volume up on a radio. 

She nodded slowly, deep in thought as snow and ice swirled around her, freezing to her hair and soaking through her sweater. Two weeks before he and his whole rotten family were kicking their feet up in her home. It felt like her brain wasn’t letting her process it. She could feel blood starting to drip out of her nose. “That’s unfortunate.”

Several more windows down the hall shattered in full as the blood from her nose increased steadily.

"That’s truly unfortunate.”


	6. NEXUS II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- everything sucks for Nexus

“Have we been able to achieve the same results in subsequent rounds of testing?” Nexus scanned the most recent report from his lab, trying to pick out either pointedly negative or pointedly positive developments as he paced his new office, temporarily located on the ground level of the palace’s eastern wing. The upper levels were all but prepared for the guests that were to arrive the following afternoon - on Princess Aspen’s birthday. 

He would’ve loved to read the entire report, considering how swiftly things had been progressing, but all of his free time was at a premium. His new desk was loaded with unread and ignored reports from both the lab and the palace, overflowing into piles against the wall. Out in the hall and all around him, he could hear staffers sprinting from place to place in a last-minute cleaning rush, though it was barely past sunrise. 

“Yes, we’ve been able to achieve similar results under more strenuous testing.” Nexus’s lab assistant, Corte, bobbed her head excitedly. Her round, oversized glasses underscored her small, pointed face, and made her grey eyes seem as though they were being viewed through a magnifying glass. The spray of brown hair around her face did little to lessen her cartoonish appearance. “It’s - well, it’s not easy to tell with rats, really - but it’s looking like the antibodies are achieving some success in restoring the proper emotional processes of the brain.”

Nexus stroked his chin, feeling a warm wave of relief roll over him. He’d recently looped both Aspen and Sofi in on his research - and its ultimate purpose - which also came with the explanation of what had been done to the princes of Germa. Sofi had been unfazed, mostly uncaring. Aspen had been the closest to terrified that he’d seen her in years. He knew it was one thing to be trapped in an arranged marriage - but quite another to be trapped in one with someone incapable of experiencing love, fear, or pity, with a talent for violence. This move forward was almost as much for Aspen as it was for his sister, now.

Corte was still going on, her eyes widening with excitement. “Your work on bloodline lineage factors is incredible! I had heard that only Germa and the world government had access to this sort of knowledge.”

Nexus laughed nervously, looking towards the half-open door to make sure nobody had overheard her. Three staffers ran past, carrying a vacuum, with an automated mop cart rolling along behind them. All three looked incredibly harried.

Staff management had been caught with their pants down - after the announcement of Germa’s visit, 179 staff members, accounting for nearly half the palace staff entirely, had put in transfer requests to be moved to other royal properties for the duration of the visit. This included the head chef, most of the guard, and more than 50 chambermaids. The more Nexus thought about it, the more he realized _everyone’s_ time was at a premium. 

“Corte?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Would you say we are able to move forward and proceed testing on humans?”

From down the hall, Nexus heard a peculiar whirring noise, similar to a vacuum. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes when he realized what it was: staffers were attempting to heat-dry the still-wet carpeting of the eastern wing. 

“People, sir?” Corte tilted her head and cupped her chin, appearing deep in thought. “Aside from the fact we likely don’t have concentrated dosages at this juncture, I don’t believe we have any test subjects we could use. We’d need individuals devoid of empathy and proper emotional regulation for our testing to be at all worth it. And that is, uh, _very_ specific criteria.”

“What if I procure the test subjects?” Nexus focused back on his life’s work. Everything he had worked for, for years, all the sleepless nights and any free moment he had for _years_ had been for this. He was so close.

Corte looked confused. “You can find test subjects that fit criteria that narrow?

He could think of three. And they were coming directly to the palace. “Leave it to me to find the subjects. With our current supply, do we have enough for three separate dosages? Even if they are unconcentrated,” he quickly added, seeing Corte getting ready to speak.

The whirring sound stopped, and Nexus could smell burning. There was yelling from down the hall.

“I think so.”

“When would they be ready?”

“Tomorrow morning, at the latest. If I leave now.” Corte mused, jamming her hands into the pockets of her oversized lab coat. “Perhaps even tonight if all goes well.”

Nexus strode to the door and opened it slightly. “PUT THAT FIRE OUT,” he shouted in the direction of the smoking smell.

“Yes, sir! Sorry, sir!” A nervous chorus of voices called back.

He closed the door again, giving Corte a smile. “Three dosages, separated out. Please.”

Corte nodded slowly, making her way past Nexus to the door. “I can’t say how effective the first round of human testing will be, especially if the subjects - I’m assuming - will be unable to be monitored by either of us at the facility. I would honestly feel more comfortable if we gave the antibodies longer to mature, if they are to be used on anyone older and more developed than a very young child.”

“The subjects I had in mind are males in their late teens.” He checked his watch. It was already almost 6:30 - his meeting with Corte had run over by 15 minutes. Gently, he began nudging Corte out the door, coming out right behind her.

“For subjects _that_ old, the antibodies need more time for development. They’re not concentrated enough, as I said. The effects may be negligible, at this rate.” Corte hardly noticed Nexus pushing her into the hall as two staffers with fire retardant tanks strapped to their backs ran past. “A year longer would be good. Two would be better.”

“This is only preliminary testing,” Nexus reminded her, feeling both excitement at the upcoming testing and anxiety at how much more still needed to be done in preparation for tomorrow. Things he was rapidly falling behind on. “We just want to see if there’s any change at all, positive or negative.” He was hoping beyond hope for positive change - for everyone’s sake. “Now, sorry, I have to go. I’ve stretched myself a bit thin today -”

“Nexus.” Gogo was beside the door, arms crossed, dressed in her bright white uniform. She had a stern look on her face. “I need to talk to you.”

Corte waved as Nexus as she passed by Gogo. “If I do not get a chance to tell her tomorrow, please wish her royal highness a happy birthday from me.”

Nexus gave Gogo a very tired look. “Do we need to talk right now?”

Gogo breezed past him into his office, sitting down in the chair that had been occupied by Corte. Sighing loudly, and looking pointedly at his watch, he closed the door and sat back down behind his desk.

“The Servants of the Silver Queen are getting stronger.” Gogo didn’t wait for Nexus to finish sitting down before jumping right in. Her face looked more finely lined than the last time he had spoken with her, and her lips were ironed into a line. “Priya and I alone have intercepted no fewer than twelve packages in the last two weeks intended for Aspen. All of them along the lines of what you saw in the woods that night.”

Nexus thought back to the birds, their heads ripped off, tied to the trees surrounding the palace. He shuddered. “Then we need to dial up security. Why don’t we have more men on the palace grounds at all times?”

“I’ve dialed it up as far as we can,” Gogo snapped, irritated. She crossed and uncrossed her legs, and looked over her shoulder at the door. “The issue of these fanatics has only gotten worse with time and they are escalating fast. And not just here. The troops I do have are having a _hell_ of a time keeping things civil in Altest and Drammen alone. Now, _you_ need to do something about this.”

Nexus gripped at his hair, contemplating yanking it out. “ _I_ have to do something? I’m the regent, and Aspen’s advisor. You’re the one who’s supposed to make sure these nutjobs can’t get their hands on Aspen, as I think neither of us would really like to see her burnt alive.” He still couldn’t wrap his head around the very thought of that. Those cultists thought Aspen was a goddess. Nexus knew her only as a princess - albeit an improper, deeply unhappy one.

“I _don’t_ want her burnt alive, incidentally,” Gogo responded icily. “If you want me to protect her, I need more men. Far more than what we currently have.” Her volume was rising with every word, and Nexus prayed that none of the staffers were listening. “I would prefer _quality_ soldiers but failing that, I need bodies to throw at this. I have no idea how many people are behind this goddamned occult nightmare - not all of them walk around in robes and bird masks.”

Nexus felt his ire rising, and he lowered his hands from his head, clenching them into fists. He would’ve thought Gogo was smarter than to bring this up again. “You want more soldiers. I get that. But I will not speak of _this_ again. I told you that.”

“Germa has _more_ than enough soldiers,” Gogo pointed out, for what felt like the thousandth time. “Something like this is a non-issue for that level of military might. When Aspen marries Ichiji, we get access to those soldiers. A _lot_ of those soldiers. I hear they have a cache of them in a facility in that floating kingdom of theirs.”

That they did. Nexus had seen it. He did not care to see it again. He pulled a pre-prepared cigarette from his pocket and brought it to his lips, and lit it slowly.

“We have both discussed,” Gogo continued. “The necessity of Germa’s soldiers -”

“They’ll be here tomorrow,” Nexus interrupted, his blood pressure rising. He could feel his teeth grinding again. “If those cultists start a problem they’ll be crushed in an instant.”

“They won’t be here forever,” Gogo reminded him, face emotionless aside from the twisted frown. “And once they leave, we won’t have their troops to rely on until after Aspen turns 21. It would not be so hard for the cultists to wait Germa out and then resume trying for her. But if the marriage is fast-tracked -”

“No,” Nexus answered flatly. If the worst those cultists could hit them with was a few dead birds, he didn’t see what the problem was. It was in no way worth what Gogo was trying to suggest, _again_. “I won’t speak of this seriously.”

Gogo’s mouth pulled into a snarl. “This is for the safety of the kingdom -”

He bought his fist smashing down onto the surface of his desk, knocking over the photo of his sister and making the light fixture hanging above shake. “To hell with this wretched kingdom, if its citizens want their princess burned. I have - and I always will - put her happiness and safety first. Walrin trusted _us_ with watching over her and preparing her for rule. Sorry, but I haven’t been instructing her on how to cope with being stabbed in the back by someone who has been like an aunt to you.” Nexus did not refrain from twisting the knife, and seeing the flare of pain in Gogo’s eyes.

“It’s where she will end up eventually, Nexus.” Gogo quietly reminded him.

This time, Nexus slammed both fists down, dislodging piles of papers and rattling the windows. Outside in the hall, the staff fell silent for a moment. “Right! I forgot that makes it okay, then! Tell me, Gogo, what do you need from me? Do I need to actively assist? Hold her down while Ichiji Vinsmoke fucks her? Oh, and these things don’t usually take on the first try, so what about every subsequent time?”

Gogo recoiled from him in disgust, mouth agape, eyes burning with both anger and sadness. “We _need_ Germa’s military assistance. They have made it very clear what the only way to get it is. Why is that so terrible to you? We’re both aware that she’s blown this up for years in her head to be something much scarier than it needs to be -”

“That is very, very easy to say considering you have never been in a similar situation.” Nexus thought to what he knew about Ichiji and his siblings. At this juncture, it would indeed be a terrible experience for Aspen. His work wasn’t perfect yet - it was too soon.

“It doesn’t hurt,” Gogo urged, having the grace to seem as though she could barely stomach the thought. “That the prince is very handsome, or so I’ve heard. We can see with our own eyes that Aspen is beautiful - even when she’s trying very hard to be a mess. They’ll meet and they’ll end up doing what attractive people do when they’re together and left to their own devices. Aspen, perhaps, could be helped along with some wine -”

The grinding of teeth was louder than ever in Nexus’s ears.

“ -After the first time, I’m sure it’ll be easier for her to do. If we are extremely lucky, maybe she’ll even enjoy it. Then it’s only a matter of time before the inevitable.”

“She’s a _child_.” Nexus’s voice was overflowing with disgust, and her jaw was trembling even as he said it. Gogo’s plan was entirely too well-planned, well-reasoned. He thought back to just a few weeks ago, where Aspen’s fit had crippled an entire wing of the palace. “She is a child and you’re trying to make her a wife and a mother in one go. I heard her mother died giving birth to her. What’s your plan if history repeats itself?”

“I _cannot_ cross that bridge now.” Gogo jerked her head away, refusing to even look at Nexus, as though that sentiment were more repugnant than everything that had come out of her mouth. “I have to think of what is best for the kingdom. The world government won’t help us. The marines keep their hands off. The best way forward is to crush these cultists before they kill even more people.”

Nexus stood up. Gogo stood up. He made for the door, and Gogo tried to stop him. Without hesitation, he shoved her away from him, feeling some of the old strength he’d once possessed. He left the door swinging open behind him as he silently stormed out of the eastern wing, staffers scattering before him like chickens. Gogo did not follow him.

He did not feel much better when he reached the offices of the palace tailors to pick up his suit for the next day. The many-headed snake that was the council had made it very clear that they expected him front and center to greet their guests and (ostensibly) reign Aspen in before she could immediately offend the Vinsmokes. That meant looking as important as his role dictated. In this regard, he was fully with Aspen - he would rather swallow a jar of thumbtacks than face Judge Vinsmoke again.

“Your suit is back here,” Thread, the head tailor, led Nexus through the large workshop he shared with his assistant, Stitch. Large mirrors were everywhere, along with dummies, bolts of fabric, and spilled containers of pins and fabric chalk. In the center of the workshop, a dummy wore a tea-length grown in a charming strawberry color. Lace swirled on the the top layer of fabric, while the translucent sleeves bore beaded decoration. The bodice was decidedly low cut, but a thin layer of lace extended to the collarbone. Not at all an unattractive dress.

Nexus stuck his thumb towards the dress as Thread handed him an ink black suit and grey dress shirt, pressed and sealed in a clear garment bag. “Why hasn’t that been delivered to the princess yet?”

“I believe her words were, and I quote, ‘it’s my birthday tomorrow and I will wear whatever the fuck I want,’” Stitch chimed in slyly, slipping out from behind a folded mirror. His wavy brown hair had grown longer since the last time Nexus had seen him, and the way it fell into his hazel eyes had female staffers swooning. “I tried to bring it up to her last night, along with all the other red dresses and, ah, all the unmentionables that Commander Gogo ordered for her.”

Nexus’s eye twitched at the mention of lingerie for Aspen, from Gogo.

“The princess sent it right back. The young duchess Sofi insisted on keeping the lingerie, though.”

“ _You_ tried to deliver it to her?” Nexus clenched his teeth again and rounded on Thread, who was looking nervous behind tie-dye glasses as he bowed his head in apology. “He is never to be left unattended with Aspen. That is just about the only rule for this office.”

Thread murmured “sorry” before quickly preoccupying himself with several naked dummies, dragging them to the back of the workshop.

Stitch gave Nexus a crooked, shit-eating grin as he looped measuring tape over his shoulders. “No need to be so worried, sir. We weren’t alone together; I’ve just said Sofi Sanofi was there the whole time.”

Nexus glanced quickly at Thread to make sure he was still preoccupied with the dummies before firmly grabbing Stitch by the forearm like a disappointed father. “Have you lost your mind?” He hissed before Stitch could make a peep. “Her future husband will be here _tomorrow_ and you’re still sleeping with her?”

Stitch, while rattled, looked genuinely surprised at Nexus’s accusation. “Nexus,” Stitch shook his head. “Sir, I have _never_ slept with Princess Aspen. Ever.”

“Don’t lie to me.” Nexus was in no way in the mood for Stitch’s lies. So many times in the past, Priya and Anja had come across Stitch creeping in or out of the northern wing in the dead of night. It wasn’t hard to suss out what was going on.

Embarrassed, Stitch averted his eyes. “There’s….plenty to do without having sex. I know she’s been meant for Ichiji Vinsmoke for years now. I wasn’t crazy about the idea of ending up a bloody smear on the wall if he found out I touched her.” Stitch sucked on his teeth nervously, looking towards Thread, who appeared to be very preoccupied with a naked dummy. “She did ask me more than a few times, though. She didn’t want her first time to be with him. I don’t know of any other staff in the palace who would risk it, not that she’s asked anyone else. Saw all that lingerie Gogo gifted her, though. Guess Prince Charming is getting that present after all, huh?”

Nexus released Stitch, both wondering if there was a way to bleach his brain and feeling even more concerned with Aspen, now knowing she’d never had sex at all, outside of her extracurriculars with Sofi. “So nothing happened when you stopped by her room last night? Nothing at all? Is that what you’re telling me?”

Stitch turned away from Nexus, bending over a worktable with a ruby-colored bolt of chiffon laid over it. After a moment, he mumbled, “Slept with the young duchess while her highness egged me on. I didn’t touch _her_ at all. I swear on my life.”

Brain bleach was a must-have. Nexus left without another word, rubbing his head as he carried his suit bag over his shoulder. What he really needed was another cigarette, but he knew Mocha and Espresso would skin him alive if he stank up the palace hub after they’d spent days airing it out. More palace staff passed him, carrying wide bowls filled with fresh-cut flowers from the palace greenhouses. The blooms were bright and colorful, oddly out of place for a palace that loved its shades of grey, white, and black.

“Excuse me.” Another staffer stumbled past, carrying a bowl even wider than the previous ones. The flowers shook from side to side, and water sloshed over the edges as the staffer struggled to carry it, holding it at almost face level to brace it at their chest. The voice was more than familiar.

Nexus grabbed the bowl, splashing water down the front of his shirt as she shoved the garment bag at an embarrassed Musette. “You take that. I’ll take this. Where is it going?”

“Right outside the library.” Musette mumbled, thoroughly mortified.

At least it wasn’t too far. He carried the bowl carefully, arms tightly wrapped around it. It was far too heavy for Musette to have carried on her own. “So…” He struggled to find a conversation starter as she walked alongside him, head bowed. “Have things improved with your mother at all?” He had noticed a lack of bruises on her face.

“Yes.” Musette’s voice was monotone. 

“I heard she’s seeing one of the sous chefs.” Nexus felt like a moron. Why had he brought up her mother? That was a stupid idea.

He noticed Musette tense up, rounding her shoulders over and squeezing his garment bag to her. “Yes. Scallion.” She didn’t speak for a moment before speaking again. “He likes me. I don’t like him.”

That answer made Nexus feel extremely uneasy. He tried a different approach.

“Are you excited about tomorrow?”

Musette looked at him like he had three heads, her usually bright blue eyes looking dark and dulled, with circles beneath. “No. We’re down nearly 200 staff. And we’re feeling it.” She lowered her head again, her golden hair covering her face like a curtain.

He gave Musette a small side look. Her uniform looked like it had seen better days several years previous. The sleeves had holes and oddly colored patches from bleach spills, and the apron had scorch marks. Worse still, it looked like it was meant for someone 200 pounds heavier than Musette, hanging on her like a particularly unflattering potato sack. The uniforms were certainly not the most fashionable things, he knew, but Musette’s was particularly bad. The council would pitch a holy fit if she showed up looking like that tomorrow.

“You’re aware this is a _royal_ visit, right, Musette?” Nexus knew he had to approach the matter quickly and delicately. He couldn’t let Musette suffer her mother’s cast-offs any longer.

Musette sighed, pulling her hair into a low ponytail at the back of her neck. Each strand shone like sunshine, even in the dim lighting of the western end of the hub. “That’s what everyone keeps telling me. It’s also Aspen’s birthday.” The emphasis on the last two words told Nexus which was more important to Musette.

“Indeed. A double whammy.” He thought carefully on how to best avoid embarrassing the poor girl - Musette, truly, was so sweet, and did not deserve her mother’s shabby treatment. “As such, the palace staff was ordered to procure new uniforms. Same design, of course, but everyone needed at least six sets. We need to look our best.” The last sentence wasn’t a complete lie, just propaganda right from the mouths of the council.

“I, uh, missed that memo.” Musette looked slightly panicky, biting down on her small swell of a bottom lip.

“Then _you_ ,” Nexus prompted as they approached the grand palace library, closed off behind massive double doors and featuring stained glass windows that faced into the hall. “Need to get yourself to Stitch and Thread. Tell them to make you six new uniform sets - based on your current measurements precisely.” He would not have Musette forced to wear oversized clothing anymore in some misguided attempt to please Colette. “Shoes too.”

She bit down on her lip harder as she clutched nervously to Nexus’s bag. “But I -”

“They’re very fast. I’m certain they’ll have at least two sets ready before nightfall.” Nexus set the large flower bowl on an empty plinth to the side of one of the doors. Most of the water had spilled out and some of the flowers were smashed, but on the whole it looked pretty okay.

Musette continued to protest even as Nexus took his suit bag from her. “I don’t have -”

“Tell them to put it under my account.” Each head of the separate palace divisions was aware of Musette’s difficulties with her mother, and knew to act with discretion. “It’s still very early so there is no one else over there yet. Go!”

Stopping short of arguing back again, Musette clamped her mouth shut and ran off, her ponytail swinging at her back as she ran.

Nexus, with a satisfied nod, checked his watch. He went pale as he realized he had fallen an hour behind the schedule he had set for himself. It was early, too early still for any of the businesses in the city to be open, and he was already running behind

*****

It was scarcely past noon, and Nexus had abandoned any hope of catching up on everything he needed to do. He’d met with Corte, had an unproductive talk with Gogo, picked up his suit, and had been forced to meet briefly with the council - all of whom Nexus disliked just as much as Aspen did. 

The feeling was, of course, mutual on both sides: they hated Nexus for being a ‘charlatan’ that had charmed the late king and ‘usurped’ the highest position of power upon the king’s death. Aspen, they hated for anything and everything. Now that Nexus was one day away from no longer being regent and Aspen’s assuming the full power of the crown, they spent the bulk of their time flexing in what few ways they could, their primary obsession being Germa’s visit.

Their meeting had, naturally, not gone well. Every single member of the council - each one more dislikeable than the last - wanted Aspen’s focus for the duration of the visit to be Ichiji and Ichiji alone. She was to do everything in her power to make the prince happy (here there were a few knowing glances and chuckles, enough to make Nexus furious all over again) and therefore it would fall to Nexus to handle Germa’s current king and the remaining Vinsmoke children.

Nexus could not think of a role he desired less, but it had been precisely what he had anticipated. He’d spent the last month steeling himself for it. Being back in the eastern office hall was almost a relief after that train wreck of a meeting. He had planned to meet with Mace and Dagger, the brother and sister co-captains of the household guard, regarding palace security. He would very much prefer to not have any more headless bird decor to explain.

The office corridor was choked with staff, replacing every lightbulb in the small wall lamps and running automatic floor cleaners from end to end. Twice in ten feet, Nexus slipped in a practically invisible puddle and almost concussed himself on the floor.

Wet and smelling strongly of floor wax, Nexus threw open the door of Dagger’s office, only to find it empty. Her heavy coat of grey wool, decorated with medals from the kingdom’s previous civil war, was hung on the back of a velvet chair, and her favorite gun lay across a rolled-out blueprint of the palace’s private staff passages, all of which were only accessible with key cards. An indifferent woman who did not frequently make use of words or facial expressions, she preferred to keep her gun close. Nexus knew she had to be nearby.

“Nobody is going to think less highly of you…” From further down the hall, Nexus could hear Gogo’s voice, sounding unusually friendly and encouraging. “I have heard the prince is quite attractive...we were all your age once, we know how it goes.”

A frustrated response from Aspen followed shortly after. “Please tell me you did not drag me out of my room to waste my time with this.”

Nexus tore out of Dagger’s office and down the hall to Gogo’s in record time, stopping just short of the door that had been left ajar. He couldn’t see Gogo, who was very likely behind her desk, but he could see a fidgeting Anja seated on the edge of the desk, Priya standing beside her, and then Dagger, built like a brick shithouse with massive shoulders and a buzzed scalp, sitting completely blank-faced in a chair. In the middle of all of them was Aspen, wearing a shirt so thin it was transparent, and shorts that left little to the imagination. He recognized the outfit as her pajamas. Her hair was knotted in a messy bun but had mostly escaped, hanging in her eyes and over her shoulders.

There was no _good_ reason for all of them to be in a room together, talking to Aspen about the sort of thing he had overheard. Aspen seemed to know that too - she sat rigidly in the chair, feet on the seat and her knees pulled up to her chin. She didn’t seem to be looking at any of them, and Nexus could feel her wild discomfort all the way in the hall.

“All we’re saying, your highness,” Priya spoke, not even attempting to sound as though she wasn’t reading from a script. “Is that you’re going to marry him anyway, so it’s not like anybody could blame you for wanting to...see what you’re getting into, for lack of a better term.”

“Like that would make a damn difference to any of you,” Aspen snapped, irritated. She wrapped her arms tighter around her legs, resting her cheek on her bare knee.

Nexus did not like this at all. Aspen was visibly uneasy with the topic of conversation, and judging from the look that appeared to be targeted right at Gogo (whom Nexus was still unable to see), she knew exactly who was to blame. Aspen adored Gogo 99% of the time, so the hateful glare aimed right at her startled him. There was no way Aspen could be aware of what Gogo had pitched to him earlier that same morning, was there?

“Aspen.” Anja, a horrible actress on a good day, took her turn. “Maybe -”

Aspen rounded her glare on Anja, who broke off mid-sentence and stared down at the floor, her face reddening. 

Making a disgusted noise, Aspen lowered her bare feet to the floor and stood up. “I’m done with this. I’m going back to my room.”

“But your highness -”

“I’m the princess and I’m going back to my goddamn room.” She folded her arms over her chest angrily. “I have no plans to ‘see what I’m getting into,’” - here was a break from the folded arms for angry finger quotes - “...because I’m fairly certain I prefer Sofi.”

“And your mother preferred me,” Nexus heard Gogo, fully fed up, fire back at Aspen. “She still married your father. She still had you.”

Aspen appeared blindsided by the information, taking a step away from Gogo’s desk with her jaw hanging slightly open. “I don’t believe you.”

“You should give it a try, with the prince.” Dagger, having apparently missed the sharp turn the conversation had just taken, quietly spoke up. “People are into all sorts of strange things in the bedroom and it would be better to know. Speaking personally, I like having my hair pulled.”

Still processing Gogo’s unexpected admission, Aspen slowly turned to Dagger, her narrowed eyes confusedly sliding over the buzz cut. “How’s that been working out for you?”

“Your highness!” Nexus rushed in, no longer able to just watch the mess unfold in front of him. He held onto the doorknob, and breathed heavily, doing his best to pretend as though he had just run down the hall and not been lurking the entire time. “I’ve been looking for you - you’re certainly up early.”

Aspen looked at him, confused but pleased at his interruption. “It’s...one, Nexus.”

He checked his watch. It was one fifteen. _Shit_.

Her whole face had perked back up, and he saw a cheerful spark in her pretty green eyes as a smile spread across her face. “I’m sorry, I’ve been...down here, I had been upstairs with Sofi and Jack, but…”

“Go get dressed, and...make sure your quarters are cleaned.” Nexus ran with the first excuse he could think of to get her out of the room full of women who were currently staring daggers at him. 

A flicker of irritation briefly clouded Aspen’s face. “Why? In case I decided to bring Prince Ichiji up there tomorrow?”

“I can’t think of a single _appropriate_ reason you would do that,” Nexus answered mildly, stressing the key word for the benefit of the others. He did not look at Gogo, but he could feel her attempting to set him ablaze with a glare alone. “The staff is doing a last minute cleaning sweep and if you’ve left a single boot on the floor they’ll use it as a pretense to rearrange everything once again.” Aspen, as it happened, was _very_ particular about her room - it was one of the few things that could make her completely freak out on a staff member.

“I wish they wouldn’t do that.” Aspen made a face.

“When you’re done, perhaps you and Sofi could spend the afternoon in the conservatory. I promised her mother I would have her practicing the piano.” He truly had, and had completely forgotten about it. Sonia Sanofi would not be pleased when she found out - and she was a scary woman. The conservatory would also be swarming with staffers, giving Gogo no other chance to corner Aspen.

Not needing more reason to leave the awkward situation, Aspen gave Nexus a quick, grateful nod and moved out past him quickly. He accidentally got a glance at just how thin her shirt really was, and he quickly moved his eyes to the ceiling as she headed down the hall.

Dagger rose from her chair, reaching a muscled arm around the back of her head for a good scratch. Her bicep seemed larger than Nexus’s head. “I’m going to touch base with Mace about the security for the palace. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help, Gogo.”

“We’ll come with you.” Priya straightened up, and Anja got off the edge of the desk. They both looked exceptionally sharp in their pressed and clean uniforms. As they passed Nexus, Priya’s amethyst eyes regarded him coldly, while Anja refused to make eye contact at all. 

As the three of them walked away, he could hear Priya and Anja mumbling.

“He can be just as unreasonable and short-sighted as the princess.” Priya, it seemed, had not been fooled by Nexus’s convenient interruption.

“Did you notice Aspen didn’t lose control a single time in there? Not a knocked over painting or anything. Why do you think that is?”

“Probably due to her losing complete control a few weeks ago. You’ve seen the eastern wing. We’re lucky it was not the section where the guests will be staying.” The sounds of their boots trailed off, and Nexus could hear their conversation no longer.

Nexus was alone with Gogo, again, for the second time that day. She stood up from her desk, eyes full of anger, but what also looked like sadness. Her tight bun, usually so smooth and polished, had more than its fair share of loose hairs. She had her hands in tight fists, pressed down hard onto the surface of the desk.

He let out an awkward cough. Gogo continued to stare him down, saying nothing. He tried to look at anything else in the room - the stacks of reports from the army all over Hoarfrost on her desk, a half-finished lunchbox. A framed photo of a younger Gogo, with a laughing woman with red hair as wild as Aspen’s. A burning candle, scented like lilies. The large guns, in their holsters, hanging from the coat rack.

After a few more minutes of silence, he spoke up. “You had to know that approach was never going to work with Aspen.”

“I had to try.” Gogo stepped out from behind her desk, arms behind her back as she continued to glare at him. “I received a report earlier about things boiling over completely in Altest and Drammen. I _had_ to try. What would _you_ have done?”

“In an alternate universe where I agree with this terrible plan?” Nexus set down the garment bag he’d been lugging around for hours and pulled his half-empty pack of cigarettes and silver lighter out of his breast pocket. He slid one between his lips and flicked it to life. “I wouldn’t do something that I know is going to have the opposite effect. We know Aspen. Attempting to shove her into Ichiji’s arms is going to make her resist harder.”

Gogo snorted. Nexus inhaled deeply, feeling the soothing rush of nicotine fill his lungs, calming him. He tilted his head back, and exhaled smoke at the ceiling. Gogo took Anja’s place on the edge of the desk, watching Nexus as he leaned against her doorframe. The anger in her eyes was beginning to ebb away, overpowered by sadness and resignation.

She reached a hand out. “Let me get one of those.”

Nexus passed Gogo a cigarette, which she lit with the candle on her desk, bending backwards strangely to reach it without turning around. She began sucking furiously on the stick, leaning forward to prop her elbows on her knees, making indentations in the stiff fabric. “I’d probably have better luck if the council hadn’t picked a literal comic book villain for her to marry,” Gogo chuckled darkly. “Any other man would’ve been an easier sell.”

He nodded in agreement, feeling very resigned himself. “You didn’t strike me as someone who’s read _Sora, Warrior of the Sea_.”

“Everyone in Hoarfrost’s military has. And all of them root for Germa 66.”

“Don’t tell Aspen.” Nexus took a longer, harder drag. “Speaking of - does the council still maintain that they’re not even a real organization?”

Gogo laughed out loud. “Oh, of _course_ .” She sat up before leaning back on her palms as she crossed her legs. “I believe they said it was ‘completely fiction lifted straight from children’s fairy tales.’ Nobody is _that_ stupid.”

“Ah.” Nexus pressed his back against the doorframe, feeling the hard edges digging into every sore muscle in his back. Gogo finished her cigarette in record time and Nexus, without needing to be asked, offered another.

“Did you tell her about my plan?” Gogo asked suddenly, staring off at an empty section of grey wall. “She was very distant with me earlier, even before I brought her down here. Barely said two words to me when I came to her door, very cold. Very unlike her.”

Nexus grimaced. He had not been quiet during their argument earlier, and it was not impossible to think they were overheard by a staffer, who then reported back to Aspen. “I would’ve been well within my rights to. But no.”

“Hm.”

“Was that true, by the way?”

“Was what true?”

“That...what you said to Aspen. About you and her mother.” Nexus was trying his best to tread lightly, but he could not restrain his curiosity any longer.

Gogo continued staring at the wall, ashes falling from her lips all over the front of her white coat. The corners of her mouth twitched upwards. “I loved Theo. Theo loved me. I would’ve done anything for her.” She paused for a moment, musing to herself. “Everything I am now, I am because of her.”

Just speaking of Aspen’s late mother seemed to breathe life into Gogo’s exhausted features. Her cheeks filled with color, and her eyes lit up in a way that Nexus could not recall having ever seen before. “I met her when I was little, after my father - former captain commander - retired and we moved to Icirra, in the north. I fell in love with her at first sight, as insane as that sounds for a little kid.”

“I know the staff thinks quite highly of her, even now. The council, not so much.” Nexus didn’t know an awful lot about Aspen’s mother. She’d died long before he’d come to Hoarfrost, and Aspen - having never known her - never spoke of her the way she did her father. 

“She did _so much_ for this kingdom. So many of the popular reforms were her idea. Like opening the kingdom up for tourism - for the shops, the resorts in the north - that was one of her ideas.” Gogo was excited and animated now, with energy more appropriate for someone several decades younger. “Regular people loved her. Walrin - after the civil wars, after Belladonna was gone - asked her to marry him because nobody deserved the crown more than she did.”

“Is that...the only reason?” Nexus asked cautiously, not wanting to touch a nerve. He had never heard Gogo go on in such a way about Theodosia, but it was common knowledge how much the king had loved her, how devoted he’d been.

Gogo’s cheer in no way diminished. “He loved her,” she admitted, closing her eyes again as if she were picturing them both, the forgotten cigarette burning down to nothing. “But he was never _that_ kind of man. And he knew about...about her and I. We both loved her, and neither of us had any reason to make it into a fight. I encouraged her to accept when he asked her to marry him.”

Nexus nodded slowly, lighting a third cigarette. He wasn’t quite sure he understood what Gogo was saying. “You...both loved her? What do you mean when you say he wasn’t ‘that’ kind of man?”

“Oh, I mean, he loved her but he never wanted to sleep with her. He never desired her the way I did.” Gogo quickly clarified. 

That did little to lessen his confusion. “But...Aspen?”

“We both know there are ways to conceive without necessarily having to have sex.”

“But why even -”

“Same situation as now, minus Germa’s involvement. Walrin was the only Frostbane left. Hoarfrost has been ruled by the Frostbanes for hundreds of years. Even with how much the council hated Theo, with her bleeding heart, they knew they needed an heir. And so...Aspen.” 

“Ah. The kingdom’s best interests.” It all made sense to Nexus now.

“ _Now_ you see.” Gogo’s smile disappeared, her eyes dimming again. “There were no cultists trying to burn Theo alive then, though I’d have liked to see them try. So there is more at stake now. If her mother could do it, Aspen can do it.”

Nexus checked his watch. Somehow, it was already a quarter to three. “I have to head into the city. I’m grabbing something from Beurre’s and I’m an hour past when I originally told them I’d be there.”

“How lucky, getting something from Beurre’s.” Beurre’s was exquisite patisserie, possibly the best in the North Blue - nobody in the palace could compare.

He had dropped his cigarette butts in the trash can and was picking up his garment bag when Gogo spoke up again. “One last question.”

“Hm?” He had set one foot out the door and a hand on the knob

“You know my history, now - or more of it than you had. When will I hear more of yours, Nexus?” Gogo had a peculiar look on her face, her head tilted at an odd angle as she studied him carefully. It gave him a weird sensation in his gut.

“What do you mean?”

“Like how you ended up here from Germa.”

Nexus’s grip on the doorknob intensified, and he felt as though she had poured ice cold water over him. Gogo’s tone made it clear that outright denial was not going to work - and Nexus was unsure just how much she knew. “I don’t think I’d like to talk about that, no,” he carefully answered.

“Shame. Though I would imagine you’re excited to see your niece and nephews again.”

She knew more than he had anticipated, and the icy feeling doubled. “How -”

“I’ve attended reverie, in the past.” Gogo was not looking at him anymore, having gotten to her feet as she removed her gun belt from the coat rack. “Did you think I would not recognize Sora Vinsmoke from that photo on your desk?”

Nexus was beginning to sweat. “Aspen -”

“ -Has no idea,” Gogo finished. “Not yet. But better she hears it from you, and soon. Now, go and pick up her birthday cake.”


	7. BATTUR

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- I've been hand-writing everything so when I only had a few pages left in my first notebook I threw this one-off in  
> \- I actually liked this POV from an OC who is not directly affiliated with any of the primary POV characters

“Do other kingdoms have security details like this?” Battur, new to Hoarfrost’s army, was on his first night of gate guard. All new recruits had heard of gate duty. Not all of them did it.

“I...do not believe so.” His training captain, Rudder, had a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, over his fur lined coat. He had a thick mug of hot mulled wine gripped between gloved hands. “Not a lot of kingdoms on winter islands that I’m aware of. Just us and Drum Kingdom as far as I know. Think they’re called somethin’ different now though.”

Their patrol boat was light and speedy, doing lap after lap around Hoarfrost’s first line of defense: the glacial gate. Made of heavy sea ice and covered in razor sharp shards, the gate was thicker than Battur could describe, and taller than a judicial ship. The gate had access points in every cardinal direction, guarded by floating check-in stations that let in merchant vessels, cruise lines filled with tourists eager to visit the kingdom’s slopes and natural hot springs, and the occasional pirate ship - provided they agreed to keep the peace. 

“The utility of the gate being ice,” Rudder had explained prior to their journey out from Snøvanger the night before. “Is that we can modify the entry points to accommodate all ship sizes, and then quickly seal the gap. Everything we need is in the water, and every patrol boat has the controls to make it happen. All you need to do is secure clearance first.”

A succinct explanation, but not really a helpful one for Battur, who still didn’t understand how it all worked. They’d left Snøvanger harbor shortly before sunrise, and didn’t even reach the gate until it was past noon. And even after they’d gotten there, their sole job was only to patrol the outer border, which amounted to several more hours spent either in the cramped cabin or the frozen deck, where a frigid wind constantly blew and sea spray froze in midair.

Glamorous, it was not. Entertaining, it also was not. But it was easy.

“I heard there’s been some ugly shit going down in Hoarfrost Central,” Battur casually mentioned to Rudder, leaning over the metal railing to watch the waves lap at the hull. Having grown up in Åker, it was really only the slightest bit chilly to him. “Religious nuts.”

“Be grateful you’re here and not there,” Rudder answered firmly, his grizzled features twitching as the cold wind bit at him. “There’s something awfully queer in the bad way out there. I heard Altest and Drammen went up in flames in a confrontation between us and them.”

Battur had heard no such thing. Startled, he turned back to Rudder, who had a grim expression on his face. “I’d heard there was a confrontation. I hadn’t heard the city went up in flames.”

“That’s very kind of you to refer to that backwoods hellhole as a city,” Rudder sipped at his wine as he looked out into the North Blue. “Weirdest part, got no idea where the people went. I heard there were no bodies recovered except the combatants. Altest and Drammen ain’t no Åker or St. Santigaard, but it had a decently sized population. So where did everyone go?”

Hearing that made Battur’s stomach feel odd. “I would take being out here over being out there any day.”

“You’re a smart one.”

Glad to be finished with their disquieting conversation, Battur resumed leaning on the railing, listening to the sea. Rudder, done trying to deal with the cold, retreated to the heated cabin. There were another few hours left before they could return to the main patrol ship for dinner, drinks, and a good night’s sleep.

Off on the horizon, Battur noticed a small ship off in the distance. An icy haze between them obscured its finer details and sail. It did seem to be coming their way.

Another ship appeared out of the mist, then five more. Another ten followed. The horizon, empty moments ago, was quickly becoming peppered with strangely shaped ships, growing larger and larger by the moment as they approached at a considerable clip. They did not look like cruise ships or merchant vessels.

Battur’s feet flew out from under him twice as he wheeled around and made a mad dash for the cabin. He banged his fist hard into the large window, catching Rudder, who had begun to doze, off-guard. “We have company, sir!”

Seeing the alarm in Battur’s face, Rudder leapt from his chair and snatched his hat and scarf from a hook above the heater. “How many?” He shouted.

Thoroughly rattled, Battur swung his head back around towards the sea. The fleet had grown even more numerous, their forms veiled in mist and haze. Right away, Battur could tell they looked to be monstrous in size. “A lot!”

“A LOT?” Rudder yelled, thundering out the door, his heavy boots stomping on the deck. He saw what Battur saw, and he stopped dead. “I suppose that is a lot.”

Battur didn’t know whether or not to panic as the ships drew closer still, with no sign of slowing. The mist cleared as they moved, revealing the strangest shapes, as though they were giant snails with peculiar structures on their shells…

“Motherfuck me sideways…” Rudder muttered to himself, narrowing his eyes at the unusual fleet. “It can’t be. Not already.”

“‘Not already’ what?” Battur couldn’t take his eyes off the ships as they came into full, clear view. The strange snail-like shapes  _ were _ snails, with castles, towers, and other structures on their shells. Each spire and tower bore the same flag, but they were still a bit too far for him to make it out. He had never seen anything like it before.

Swearing loudly, Rudder charged back into the cabin, leaving the door swinging open and banging against the wall. “I need to be connected with either Commander Halibar or Nexus back in Snøvanger  _ immediately _ .”

After what felt like a lifetime, Battur could finally make out the flags: black, with two 6s dead center. He’d seen it before in photos, but never before in person. “SIR,” he called to Rudder, fully alarmed and in a dead panic. “IT’S -”

“I have Germa bearing the fuck down on me and I don’t have the clearance to open the damned gate!” Rudder shouted over the transponder to someone. He was hunched over the control panel. “If you can’t get through to Commander Halibar or Nexus you need to get me someone who can  _ give me the -” _

“SIR.” Battur yelled again, beginning to sweat heavily despite the freezing wind and sea spray. Germa was quickly -  _ very quickly _ \- closing the gap, and would be at the glacial gate in a matter of minutes. Battur did not want to be stuck between the Underworld’s most infamous warmongers and a floating wall of spikes.

“To hell with all of you!” Rudder threw the transponder out of the cabin through the open door. It rolled and slid over the icy deck before silently dropping overboard. Inside, Rudder was pressing buttons and adjusting dials at the control panel, all while swearing loudly.

The glacial gate, on their starboard side, began to shudder. Rows of precise vertical slices appeared on its surface, appearing to spread through the full thickness. Battur, reluctantly turning away from Germa’s advancing fleet, watched in silent awe as the gate fractured along its cracks, each segment quickly and quietly sinking into the depths below. In a matter of seconds, a massive gap had opened up, clearing a direct path through the entire gate to the island.

Their tiny patrol boat’s engine whizzed to life, flinging Battur on his ass as the boat flew backwards at the last possible moment. A dark shadow eclipsed them as Germa’s fleet passed without slowing, their massive wake rocking the boat sideways with an icy wave that soaked Battur to his core. As he struggled to get back up, his hands and feet rapidly numbing, more ships passed than he could count, each carrying a large, extravagant structure at the top.

And then as quickly as it had begun, it was over. Staggering into the warmth of the tiny cabin, Battur watched the backs of the ships as they continued down the channel before the gate panels rose again from the sea. The lines along which they’d broken quickly refroze, and had disappeared before Rudder could close the cabin door.

Rudder’s face was beet red, his square jaw set in frustration as he watched Battur rip off his soaked and frozen coat and boots before slumping against the wall beside the heater. “To be perfectly clear - that does not happen every day.”

“I feel odd. Like we should not have just allowed them in so easy.” Just rolling out the red carpet for Germa left a bitter taste in his mouth. 

Rudder gave him a sympathetic look. “I don’t like that anymore than you. Over the next few years, their comings and goings are something we’re just going to have to get used to.”

“Why are they even here? Why now?” They hadn’t slowed in the slightest, and that burned Battur the most. What if Rudder had been unable to get the gate open? What if they hadn’t gotten out of the way in time?

“A royal meeting between the future bride and groom.” Rudder sounded tense, looking at the solid section of gate. “And they’re ahead of schedule.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- now we're getting somewhere


	8. MUSETTE II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- this is the last chapter before shit starts getting real, real fast  
> \- a bit rapey at points  
> \- i wrote a shower scene without it going full lesbian

“Mother?” Musette pushed open the door to the apartment where she lived with her mother in the northeastern wing, eyes blinking rapidly to adjust to the dark. Over the course of the last several hours, Musette had noticed her mother was not at her usual post in the kitchens; the auxiliary chef, Crema, was filling the head chef spot for the present. She couldn’t tell Musette where her mother was, and Musette had felt too uncomfortable with the way the rest of the kitchen staff was looking at her to ask anyone else.

She switched on the light, nudging aside forgotten liquor bottles and bags of trash. The dim and yellow light illuminated further garbage, more bottles, and the stained, torn couch where Musette usually slept. Holding her breath, Musette listening for any snoring, grunting, or breathing - any indication that her mother was in. She heard nothing.

A quick check in the single bathroom and bedroom came up equally devoid of life as well, unsettling Musette slightly. Nervously twisting some hair around a finger, she looked for any kind of clue as to where her mother could have gone. The kitchen table was the same as it had been this morning, stacked dishes undisturbed and the medicine her mother gave her sitting in their clear containers. The toiletries were gone from the bathroom. Her heavy winter coat and boots were missing, along with all of her work uniforms and non-slip kitchen shoes. The only suitcase they owned was gone as well, leaving a conspicuous, empty space in their hall closet.

Getting more antsy with every passing moment, Musette left the apartment again, not bothering to lock it behind her - there was nothing inside worth stealing. If she couldn’t figure out where her mother had gone, perhaps the staff coordinators would know.

Out in the hall, on the 5th floor of the staff quarters, it looked leagues different than inside her apartment. The walls gleamed with silvery flocked wallpaper, and the cream-colored carpet had been recently shampooed. It was also deathly quiet, with how many staff members had put in transfer requests prior to Germa’s arrival.

Musette hurried back to the palace hub with her head down, trying to think of where her mother had disappeared to. Coat and boots missing meant she had left the palace for something. But she didn’t need the suitcase to go get groceries, or anything else. It didn’t make the slightest bit of sense. Musette was so absorbed in her thoughts, she did not notice another staffer in the hall, heading in the opposite direction.

Before Musette could react, or step out of the way, she felt an arm brush against her as a hand slid up her skirt, pinching her ass _hard_ . She wheeled around, hand clenched in a tight fist, but missed completely as the other staff ran down the hall, laughing. Fuming, Musette stood rooted to the spot, face flushing red with anger. The fucking _nerve_. Even more frustrating, she hadn’t gotten a good look at his face - and his laughs didn’t sound familiar either.

Still angry, Musette continued on her way to the hub, leaving the northeastern wing while repeatedly looking over her shoulder. The hub was sparkling clean, finally ready for the royal visitors. Most people had already cleared off for dinner, but Musette passed a handful of people on her way to Mocha and Espresso’s offices. The last of the staff that had put in temporary transfer requests had left that morning, nursing genuine fear and dislike towards a royal family none of them had met. Musette, personally - save for what she knew from Aspen, Sofi, or Nexus - tried to avoid any talk of the Vinsmoke family. There was no point in getting worked up in fear of them. However bad they were, they would never be as bad as the Celestial Dragons.

The corridor with the main offices was a level of clean Musette had never seen before, with every light fixture reflecting her face back at her and the air smelling of lavender. Espresso was out, but Mocha was standing at her desk, tidying up forms and other documents. Her brown hair, cut into a bob, was pushed back by a white and cream colored headband, and her round face was dominated by square eyeglasses. Musette was always put in the mind of chocolate bars whenever she saw Mocha. Though the office door was open, Musette knocked gently anyway. “Mocha.”

Mocha looked up from the files she had been sorting, her eyes widening in surprise when she saw Musette. “Musette? What are you doing here?”

“Have you seen my mother?”

“She - she left, Musette. I believe she took the train this morning.” Mocha looked at Musette curiously, eyes still wide in surprise. “I...thought you were going with her.”

Musette did not understand. “Took the train? Where?”

“To St. Santigaard,” Mocha explained, her voice sympathetic. She picked up a stack of transfer requests from the corner of her desk and rifled through them, pulling one out of the center and showing it to Musette. Her mother’s signature was at the bottom. Transfer period effective from November 11th to May 11th. “She put in the request the day the announcement about the visit was made. I thought it was meant to apply to both of you.”

“I see.” Musette felt very strange, seeing her mother’s signature and the length of time she would be hours away in the northwest. Six months without her mother breathing down her neck. “Thank you for letting me know.” She turned to leave.

“Wait, Musette,” Mocha came to her office door and called after Musette, who neither stopped nor turned around. “We can still get you on the next train to -”

Musette waved, and continued walking. “That’s not necessary. Thank you.”

She wandered aimlessly for a bit, unsure of what to do with herself. For coming on the clock early, she had been let off early. Everyone else was at dinner or gone. Musette eventually found herself drifting towards the northern wing, her footsteps echoing on the tile. She hadn’t seen Aspen or Sofi much - maybe they wouldn’t mind her coming around. After that night with Nexus and the headless birds, she hadn’t cared to be in the empty hub by herself. She couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched.

Musette had barely passed the conservatory when she heard her name.

“Ah, Musette. There you are.” An oily voice oozed out of an open storage closet she had been passing by. Standing by several shelves of clean towels was a scrawny many, barely taller than her, her stringy hair both greasy and colorless. Even from several feet away, Musette could smell the bitter stink that seemed permanently soaked into his skin. She hated that smell, and she had always hated how many times she needed to shower to get it off her.

“Scallion.” She did not meet his eyes. “I thought you left with mother.”

“She thought it would be a good idea that I stay here to keep a close eye on you.” He leered at her with crooked, brown teeth. “Are you off already? And going to visit...the Princess Aspen and the Duchess Sofi Sanofi? You know how your mother feels about that...tsk tsk.”

Musette said nothing. Of _course_ her mother had something up her sleeve. She had been so stupid not to see it. _So stupid_.

“It would be a shame if Colette were to find out, even all the way in St. Santigaard.”

Musette knew what that was meant to mean. Almost robotically, she turned and walked to Scallion, retreating into her head as he grabbed her with bony, dirty hands and pulled her into the linen closet. He turned her to face the wall as he closed the door and turned off the light. Calmly, Musette went over the list of things she still needed to do before her first shift in the morning.

 _"I need to pick up the rest of my new uniforms,”_ she reminded herself as she felt Scallion behind her, against her, pulling her dress over her head and throwing it on the floor. _“I need to do the laundry. I need to take out all the trash.”_

Scallion pressed harder against her, biting her neck, grabbing at her tits - larger than Sofi’s, much larger than Aspen’s. He yanked her underwear to her knees. “This shouldn’t take long,” he whispered, biting her earlobe.

_“I need to sharpen my kitchen knives. I need to wash my hair. I need to shower. I need to shower again, and again, and again. I need to wash my hair.”_

True to his word, it didn’t take long. When he had finished with her, he wiped himself on the inside of her skirt - as he always did - and left the closet, leaving Musette alone and naked in the dark. At least he’d had the decency to finish on a discarded hand towel. Still musing over her to-do list, Musette pulled her dress and underwear back on and left the closet. Scallion’s smell was all over her again. It made her want to vomit.

“Musette!” An excited voice called after her. Musette went rigid for a nanosecond, before recognizing Sofi, who was running towards her from further down the hallway. “Are you still on the clock? Tell me you’re not still on the clock.”

Musette shook her head.

“Great!” Sofi looked even more excited and began bouncing in place, her curls springing in every direction as she moved. “I talked to Nexus a little while ago, and we’re going ahead on having a small birthday thing for Aspen tonight, in the silver reception room - she’s refusing to do anything to celebrate it tomorrow once the Asshole Squad gets here.” Her smile slipped for a moment, but bounced back even stronger. “It’s probably going to be just us, Nexus, and Wintergreen, but that’s really the only people Aspen will want there. Gogo was going to be invited, but uh...after what you overheard this morning...I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“My mother left,” Musette blurted out, her mouth twitching into a smile. “She’s gonna be gone until May. For the entire duration of the visit.”

“Good! Fuck her.” Sofi didn’t miss a beat.

“Fuck her,” Musette repeated, feeling fifty pounds lighter even still smelling Scallion on her skin. “I’d love to go. I need to shower first.”

“So do I, and Aspen probably should too.” Sofi took Musette by the hand and practically skipped back to Aspen’s room, humming excitedly. Musette couldn’t help but feel slightly happier as well - Sofi’s happiness was contagious. They passed by several silver columns with bowls of flowers set on top.

“Those are really pretty,” Sofi remarked, admiring them as they passed.

“They’re heavier than they look.”

Musette could hear a slow, sad sound growing louder the closer they got to Aspen’s room. It was high and beautiful, conjuring up feelings of loneliness and longing inside Musette that she wasn’t interested in facing at the moment. “Aspen is in a great mood already,” she deadpanned to Sofi, who had gone from a smile to a grimace.

“Oh, she’s been back on her bullshit since this morning.” Sofi sighed. “Both a princess and a drama queen. I do love her playing though.”

Aspen’s violin playing broke off abruptly when Sofi and Musette entered, and she glanced over at them from where she stood near the window, dressed in leggings and a light blue sweater, hair cascading down in messy waves. It had been pinned out of her face with silver clips shaped like stars. Unsurprisingly, she was not smiling.

“Musette’s off the clock,” Sofi announced, sounding very pleased with herself.

“I...know? Nexus and I made sure everyone had off early since tomorrow is going to be hell day.” She set her violin and bow back down in their case before giving Musette a soft smile. “Was the rest of your day terrible?”

“It could have been worse.”

“I thought maybe we could hang out tonight,” Sofi continued on, steamrolling right over Aspen and Musette. “Just the three of us. We can use the kitchenette to make popcorn or something. Maybe look over those spooky-ass black magic books you stole and try our hand at bringing someone back from the dead.”

Ah, the birthday dinner was a surprise. Musette wondered if maybe it would have been smarter for Sofi to have explicitly told her that before they were back with Aspen. “Black magic books?”

Aspen sighed loudly as she walked over to join them by her bed. She opened her mouth to explain when Sofi cut her off, holding a large black book in front of Musette’s face. The cover was pressed with a peculiar pattern, and the words ‘Old Arts’ were stamped in silver lettering. “I think we must’ve stolen this shit a year or two ago from one of the empty bedrooms. Aspen was cleaning up today before any staff could come in and start touching shit and I found this on a stool and started looking through it and there is some _fucked up shit_ that we just need to try.”

Aspen sighed even louder. “She’s been obsessed with witchy shit ever since she heard about all those cultists that have been a problem.”

“I’m just _saying_ \- fighting cultists with witchcraft seems poignant. You’re just a crybaby.”

Aspen rolled her eyes, folding her arms over her chest. “You’re dumb if you think literally any of that shit works.”

“Excuse me, bitch? We live in a world where fruit can turn you into a spider, or into rubber, or gift you any other weird ability you could possibly come up with. Including shitty ones. _You_ are a natural psychic. There are people that live beneath the sea. So don’t you fucking scoff at me for thinking the witchcraft might work.”

Musette was beginning to get the feeling that this was not the first time they’d had this argument. She could still smell Scallion. “I need to shower.”

Sofi perked back up again, tossing the book onto the bed and kicking off her pink ballet flats. “Yes! Shower time. The staff cleaned Aspen’s bathroom this afternoon.”

“Er…” Sofi seemed a touch too eager for a group shower. 

Aspen appeared to agree, raising an eyebrow as Sofi stripped down to her underwear - silky, and also in a soft shade of pink. “That’s okay. I guess. Musette, if she starts getting handsy or weird, you have my blessing to clock her with a bar of soap.” Almost reluctantly, Aspen began undressing as well, taking the pins from her hair and pulling her shirt over her head.

“I don’t have anything to change into,” Musette remembered, frustrated with herself. Once she was clean again, she wouldn’t be able to get back into her stiff, crusted dress that smelled like Scallion. “I’ll just run back to -”

“Forget that.” Sofi, completely naked, stood with her hands on her hips. Her skin was the same warm, golden shade as her face, and there was a smattering of freckles across her chest. A constellation of flat moles dotted from the left side of her ribcage and dipped down toward her hip. Her entire body, save for her head, was shaved. “We’re close enough in size that you can borrow some of my clothes.”

Musette looked at Aspen - now also naked, but holding her clothes in front of her - who just shrugged. Helpless in the face of Sofi’s relentless cheerfulness, Musette began undressing as well.

Aspen’s massive, ridiculously over the top bathroom was an _experience_. There were multiple showers and tubs, all in varying sizes, but Sofi insisted they share the large one with a flow that simulated a rain shower - something Musette hadn’t experienced since arriving in Hoarfrost. The cool water was refreshing and soothing on Musette’s body, relaxing muscles she hadn’t realized were so sore. Sofi’s insistence on washing her hair for her wasn’t bad either. The shampoo smelled like berries and cream - nearly good enough to eat. Sofi chattered the entire time, her curls lathered in thick conditioner that was hot pink.

“There’s going to be a reception tomorrow!” Sofi ran a razor up her calf, shaving hair that Musette couldn’t see. “Stitch is making dresses for me and Aspen. I should ask him to make one for you too. He’s pretty fast, I bet he’ll finish in time.”

“That’s okay.” Musette blushed in spite of herself as she scrubbed at her skin with an exfoliating soap bar that smelled like mint. She could _still_ smell Scallion, in her hair and on her neck. The solution was clearly to scrub even harder. “I have to work tomorrow. I’ll probably be on staff for the event.”

“Lame.” Sofi set her foot on the shower bench as she shaved between her legs, moving slowly and methodically. “If you want to borrow my razor you can.”

Aspen, sitting on the bench, handed Sofi a razor that still had protective casing over the blade. “Here. Have one that hasn’t touched Sofi’s vagina.”

Musette couldn’t help but laugh. “Thanks.”

Prior to the shower, Musette had never seen Aspen naked before - save for very brief glimpses when she walked in on things she shouldn’t have. While not remotely interested in women, Musette had to concede that she could see why Sofi was constantly grabbing up on her. Both Musette and Sofi were true hourglasses (though Musette was more top heavy), while Aspen had narrow shoulders and a small bust. Her waist was slightly smaller than theirs, but her hips and thighs were more than twice as big. To Musette, it seemed the perfect compliment to her otherwise doll-like, delicate features. Musette had tried to sneak a look at her ass when Aspen had gotten up to grab her shampoo, but Sofi had immediately gotten in the way and tried to grab it, only to be whacked with the bottle.

“That was unnecessary,” Sofi complained as they stepped off, a red mark on her head from where the bottle had hit. She shook the water out of her curls and it sprinkled across the icy blue tiles.

“I’ve told you before - not in front of Musette.” Aspen, speeding through drying off, lotioning up, and dressing, sat on the chaise lounge in the bedroom, carefully combing out the knots in her hair. She’d thrown on another pair of leggings, and a darker blue sweater. “Didn’t you say you were going to lend her clothes?”

“Oh shit, yeah. The trunk is still in my room.”

“Then...go get it maybe?”

Grumbling, Sofi wrapped herself back up in her towel and left the room, the door hanging slightly ajar behind her. Musette, herself clad in a fluffy white towel borrowed from Aspen, sat on the floor beside the lounge, looking over at the many colorful volumes on the bookshelves. Had she read them all?

“What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?” Musette’s response was more defensive than she had meant for it to be. If Aspen figured out the surprise birthday dinner, Sofi was going to be upset.

Aspen glanced back over at the door before slipping onto the floor beside Musette. “I said, what’s going on? And I am not referring to your mom this time.” Musette’s eyes briefly met hers before she dropped her gaze to her lap. 

“It’s nothing.”

“It is _not_ nothing. You don’t have to tell me specifics. Just tell me who.” Her voice was quite, and calm. Musette found it reassuring. If anyone could do something - why not Aspen? She was the princess. Everyone in the palace answered to her.

“Scallion.” She didn’t want to say his name, or think of him. Saying his name made her remember his hands on her body, his mouth on her neck. Everything clean was starting to feel filthy again. Musette blinked, and her eyes felt hot with tears.

Aspen did not press for details, handing Musette a tissue from the box on the low table beside the lounge. There was fire in her eyes, and she had gone white-knuckled from squeezing her fists so tightly. “I’ll take care of it.”

Sofi exploded back through the door, fully dressed in grey pants and a pink off-shoulder sweater, towel thrown over head and an armful of different outfits. “I come bearing OPTIONS.”

“Did you bring underwear?” Aspen asked.

Sofi turned back around. “I WILL BE RIGHT BACK.”

In the end it was entirely too many options for Musette, who was used to living in her work uniform. A lot of it was too flashy, too fancy, or a touch too revealing for Musette (who ignored Sofi’s protests of “If you’ve got the rack you might as well _show it off_ ”). Eventually, she settled on a plain white circle skirt and a sweater in a rosy pink. It would’ve been very loose on Aspen and slightly loose on Sofi, but it fit Musette like a glove, stretching snugly over her chest.

“I really don’t get why you hide tits that good under clothes too big for you like, 99% of the time.” Sofi shook her head sadly as she styled her curls with her fingers.

Aspen flicked Sofi hard on the ear.

“Biiiiiiiiitch,” Sofi growled, rubbing a reddening ear. “Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch.”

It took coaxing, but Sofi managed to convince Aspen to stop sitting around glaring at nothing (“I haven’t eaten in HOURS!”) and they led her through the northern wing in the direction of the silver reception room, where Nexus and Wintergreen would likely already be waiting. Aspen was immediately suspicious of their intentions,

“We passed the kitchenette.” She pointed out.

“Can’t you go back to brooding in silence for a bit longer?”

Musette snorted a laugh.

The silver room was closed off behind a heavy wooden door, with long windows of frosted glass on either side. They could see the light inside, but nothing else. Sofi opened the door, bowing low and exaggeratedly motioning for Aspen to go first - which she did, tiptoeing nervously as though she were walking into an ambush. Musette followed close behind, smelling something delicious that was making her mouth water.

Decorations in various shades of purple had been hung all over the silver room. Plum colored balloons were tied to planters on either side of the door, and lavender streamers were wrapped around the center chandelier before extending into each of the four corners. A large crystal bowl of violet-colored punch sat on a side table, right next to pasta trays and colorful fruit salad. On a table all its own, by the large window that overlooked the lights of the city, was a cupcake stand of twisted metal, holding silver-lined cupcakes with delicate lilac frosting and a sprinkling of sugar pearls.

Aspen’s eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. 

Nexus and Wintergreen - his wife and the palace head physician - had been sitting, but quickly stood up when the girls entered. Both of them looked extremely tired but happy all the same. Nexus pulled a temporarily stunned Aspen into a tight hug, kissing the top of her head like he had done when she was little. “Happy birthday, Aspen.”

Wintergreen - a short, delicate woman with a round face and hair the color of dark chocolate - joined in on the hug as well. “We all know it’s not until tomorrow, technically, but we all assumed you would prefer something tonight with just us instead of…” She trailed off, waving a hand.

“You didn’t need to do this for me.” Musette could only see the back of Aspen’s head as she was held in the hug, but from her choked-up words, it was evident that she had either begun crying or was on the precipice.

“Pfft, oh yes we did, you crybaby.” As Nexus released Aspen from the hug, Sofi stepped in and kissed her on the cheek. “Stop crying and get something to eat.”

Nexus’s eyes fell on Musette, and he got a surprised smile on his face. “Musette, is that you? I almost didn’t recognize you.”

Wintergreen pulled Musette into a sweet, motherly hug of her own - not the first in the decade they had known each other. “You look wonderful, dear. Those clothes suit you.  
“My mother is gone.” Musette, feeling relaxed and safe, broke into a wide, genuine smile.

“Good. Would that she could stay gone.” Wintergreen led Musette to a food table she hadn’t noticed when they first came in, with cheese breads, mixed green salads, and still-hot dumplings. She took a plate from the small stack on the end, handing it to Musette. “I prefer how you are when she’s not around. The feisty you, who can keep up with those two other sass machines.” With a nod, she indicated Sofi and Aspen.

Musette’s smile wavered slightly. “My mother says I’m just a bitch. Nobody likes a bitch.”

“Pardon my saying so -” Wintergreen took a small bite of cheese bread, and winked at Musette. “ -But again, those two can be quite bitchy as well. People still like them. Why would people not like you for being who you are? You’re not mean. You’re not spiteful. You’re honest and, honestly, a bit on the dryly sarcastic side. With regard to your mother...better a bitch than a narcissist.”

Wintergreen did not like Musette’s mother. Musette had gone to Wintergreen time and time again for split lips, black eyes, and cracked ribs, and the lies only worked for so long. She was one of the few adults Musette knew she could trust - and who would not lie to her. “She’ll be gone for the next six months.”

Another smile from Wintergreen, toothy and pretty. “The only bright side of this royal visit.”

“LESS TALKING, MORE EATING.” Sofi had sat down at the dining table, cheeks already stuffed with food. Aspen settled into the seat beside her with a much smaller plate. Wintergreen and Musette took their spots opposite after loading their own plates with food. Nexus, it seemed, had stepped out.

They continued talking as they ate, helping greatly in the way of making Musette forget about her afternoon. Sofi spoke animatedly as always, waving around her cutlery as she told them all about the different pirate ships she’d seen at port on her last trip into the city - and almost taking out Aspen’s eye with a fork in the process. Wintergreen told them about the new medical advances that were rapidly rolling out of Hoarfrost’s famed research and development industry: spray-on stitches, compact bone braces, an improved gel formula to heal bruises in a matter of hours. Musette brought up her aspiration to transition into a kitchen position in the next few weeks, hoping one day to be a better chef than her mother. When Nexus returned, slipping seamlessly back into the conversation, he shared stories about himself and his twin sister from when they were young.

Aspen said nothing, listened to everything, and looked happy for a change.

When everyone had cleared their plates, Sofi jumped up and grabbed the tree of cupcakes, each one now with a pearly white candle that matched the sugar pearls. “Who’s got a light?”

Nexus handed Sofi his ubiquitous silver lighter as Wintergreen jumped up to switch off the lights. Aspen caught Musette’s eye and mouthed, _“I hate this part.”_

Each cupcake lit, Sofi set them down in front of Aspen in the very center of the dining table. The light of the candles caught on the crystals suspended from the chandelier, sending bright sparkles all around the room. Sofi raised her glass of punch.

“To her royal highness, princess of all Hoarfrost. The short-tempered crybaby. The finest violinist I know. The _only_ psychic badass _any_ of us know. Owner of the damn finest ass in the North Blue -”

Nexus cleared his throat loudly as both Musette and Aspen laughed.

“ -And the only woman for me,” Sofi concluded, a sassy smirk on her face. Obscured from Musette’s view by the cupcakes, she leaned over and kissed Aspen, who was very likely blushing several shades of pink. “Happy birthday, my love.”

Musette couldn’t help but feel surprised at that - not that anybody else noticed in the light of the candles. She hadn’t thought Sofi was L word serious about Aspen, not romantically anyway.

“Happy birthday to you,” Wintergreen began, singing softly. Nexus joined in with her.

“Happy birthday to you…”

Musette joined in along with Sofi, self-conscious about her singing voice, but not wanting to be left out. Her mother hated her singing. “Happy birthday dear Aspen,”

“Happy birthday to you!”

Aspen stood up, blushing just as darkly as Musette had predicted. “I’ve had 18 years of birthday wishes, by my count. I think you guys deserve this one more than me.”

Together, Nexus, Wintergreen, Sofi, and Musette blew on the tiers of cupcakes, turning the lit flames into wisps of smoke that spiraled to the ceiling. The room was dark again, lit only by the city lights beyond the winter, glittering in the night like stars. Musette grabbed a cupcake while Sofi grabbed two, laughing with her friends, happy to be happy.


	9. SOFI II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- MORE WINE  
> \- MORE BACKGROUND STORIES  
> \- I had way more details re: occult rituals and plants used in witchcraft and I took all of it out\  
> \- 3/14 EDIT: fixed some dumb phrasing that didn't make sense

Part I of the birthday celebrations had gone precisely as Sofi had imagined. She’d known she could rely on Nexus to help pull it all together. Lots of unhealthy foods, cheese on nearly everything, chocolate and blueberry cupcakes from Beurre’s - all perfect. After dinner, all three girls had said goodnight to Nexus and Wintergreen, and left for Aspen’s room, carrying a box with the leftover cupcakes.

“I really don’t think I can eat anything else,” Sofi admitted once they were back in Aspen’s room, fully aware she was going to eat at least three or four more cupcakes later at an absolute minimum. She was laying on the floor beside Aspen’s chaise lounge, upholstered in blue satin, pulling out the crate of blueberry wine she’d hidden beneath. Sofi pulled out one of the silver-labeled purple bottles and slid it into the bag she had at the ready. Then, after a moment of thinking about it, she grabbed another.

Musette, laying at the foot of the bed, groaned. Aspen said nothing, facing away from both of them as she leaned against the wall, shirt up, belly pressed against the cold surface.

Leaving the others to their bloating and fullness, Sofi gathered the three small overnight bags she had put together for them. Pajamas for all (a borrowed pair of Sofi’s for Musette), a change of clothes for the morning (with a new uniform for Musette - Stitch must’ve known they were all together, as he’d left the garment bag hanging on Aspen’s door), pretty much everything they needed. And the wine and cupcakes. “OK, let’s go.”

“Go...where?” Musette had turned onto her back, limbs stretched out in every direction, her blonde hair fanned out. Aspen did not respond, or move from her spot at the wall.

“The western wing!” She’d seen from the windows in the silver room that the night was clear, with bright stars. Everything was coming up Sofi. “It’s not a terrible walk. I’ve done it like three times already today.”

Musette didn’t move. Aspen didn’t move.

Sofi threw their bags at them. “Let’s go, assholes.”

After no small amount of prodding, guilt tripping, and threats, they left the room for the western wing. Using a key card she had stolen out of Espresso’s office earlier in the week, Sofi led them to one of the lesser-used staff passages that led directly to the western wing, bypassing the palace hub. Its walls, ceiling, and floor were all a deep black-blue blue, with rope lights running the lengths of the walls as the only true illuminated. Paint that appeared to glow in the dark took the shape of constellations on the walls and ceiling. The passage ran deep underground, leaving them as the only source of sound. It would have been unnerving, if it hadn’t been so damn pretty.

The western wing itself was silent as well when they entered, making even their breathing seem needlessly loud. Here, the ceilings vaulted higher than anywhere else in the palace, disappearing into inky black darkness. Lights were few and far between and took the form of wall sconces shaped like moon phases. Like everywhere else in the palace, it had undergone extensive deep-cleaning ahead of Germa’s visit, though the entire wing had been low priority. The midnight blue carpet at their feet, the same color as the underground passage, was still damp from an earlier shampooing.

“Are we...on the top floor?” Musette asked curiously, looking at the celestial-themed sconces mounted high on dark walls. “I don’t think I’ve had to come up here before.”

“Nobody ever really comes up here,” Aspen answered, slowly rousing from her walking food coma. “Nobody except Alyssa, the palace botanist. The only thing up here is one of the greenhouses. And _technically_ we’re on the bottom floor...the western wing is the only branch that is only one floor.”

“There’s a greenhouse inside the palace?” Musette sounded surprised, and interested. “I thought all the greenhouses were out on the grounds.”

Ahead of them, Sofi could see the end of the western wing, lit from almost all sides by moonlight and starlight that streamed through clear glass panels. Plants large and small crowded the entryway, looking like an abrupt transition from witchy palace to wilderness retreat. She could make out Lady’s mantle, foxglove, and goosegrass on her first glance.

“Did you...intend to take us to the greenhouse?” Sofi recognized Aspen’s familiar wariness as she began to slow.

“Obviously.” She pushed the branches of several large, leafy plants out of the way until she found a path that had been left clear of any planters. “This way.”

The greenhouse was warmer and damper than the rest of the western wing, smelling earthy and floral in equal measure. All the different plant varieties had been set in planters that seemed to form a maze, many of the plants forming thick walls and reaching up towards the roof of the greenhouse. Low hanging branches and vines covered their heads, forming a natural canopy that blocked out most of the light from the sky.

“Sofi.” Behind her, Aspen sounded very tired. “Are we -”

“Here!” Sofi stepped into a sizable space that opened up in the middle of all the different planters, with a clear view to the glass ceiling above, with its bright stars and half moon. Sofi had recruited the help of a handful of staffers to move a large futon mattress into the space earlier, and bought their silence with the money her mother sent that she had saved. Blankets and pillows stolen from different linen closets had been thrown all over the mattress in what Sofi thought looked very hip. Only a narrow row of low plants separated them from the wall, where they could see over a section of woods all the way down to the city and its harbor.

Musette patted Aspen on the back gently. “Don’t cry.”

“I’m not,” Aspen protested, sounding choked up.

Sofi couldn’t help but pat herself on the back - made the crybaby cry twice in one evening: mission accomplished. She watched Aspen and Musette drop their bags, oohing and ahhing at the views from the ceiling and clear wall. It was still completely clear outside - a rare occurrence outside of October. “There’s a bathroom back down the hall. I swear it doesn’t take as long to get in and out of here after the first time.”

After they changed into their pajamas, Sofi pulled out one of the wine bottles and passed it around. Musette took the tiniest sip and declined more, while Aspen polished off a third of the bottle - even after Sofi had reminded her twice that it was the especially boozy kind. They laid together on the mattress, twined together in a cuddle huddle around a sufficiently wasted Aspen beneath soft fleece blankets. Sofi was pleased that Musette did not seem to find their physical affection awkward, cuddling back and seeming content.

Aspen put a hand up. “More wine.”

“No.” Sofi and Musette answered together.

Aspen seemed to accept that, dropping her hand back onto her chest. “You guys really didn’t have to do this for me,” she slurred, stroking at Musette’s hair with limp fingers.

“Oh shut up,” Sofi answered affectionately. “It wasn’t _that_ big of a deal - and it made sense since I doubt we’ll get to do anything tomorrow.”

“There’s a joint welcome reception and birthday party tomorrow night,” Aspen reminded them both, turning her head slightly to look at the sky as her lids began to droop.

“Yes, and you’ll hate every second of it. We know.” Musette assured her.

“It’s been a good birthday, pre-birthday,” Aspen stumbled, brow furrowing as she tried to find the right words. “Like today isn’t my birthday but it’s a good birthday….not on the birthday day. The best in a long time.” She yawned, falling silent for a brief moment as her eyes closed. Sofi could make out every single eyelash. She had always been ready and willing to kill for eyelashes as thick and black as Aspen’s. “I love you Sofi.”

“I love you too.” Hearing it from Aspen made her heart stop for a brief moment. They’d always said it jokingly, but it felt different this time. Even if she was drunk.

“And I love you too, Musette, but in a totally platonic way.”

Musette laughed, reaching an arm over to pat Aspen on the head. Drunk!Aspen was one of Sofi’s favorite modes - right up there with Horny!Aspen. “Love you too, in an equally platonic way. Go to sleep.” Musette seemed to have chilled out considerably throughout the duration of the evening, talking about how her mother was gone. Sofi wished there was a way to keep her gone, short of killing her or crippling her in a way that everyone would eventually find out about. Musette was way more fun when Miss Colette wasn’t around.

Letting out a contented sigh, Aspen pressed her head into the long pillow she shared with the other two. Not even a minute or so later, she was out cold, snoring slightly. Sofi was feeling tired herself, but not quite sleepy yet. Slowly untangling herself from Aspen and Musette, she sat up and reached for the box of cupcakes she had purposely set on the ground closest to her.

Musette, also awake, stayed laying down, glancing at the plants that surrounded them. “I wonder what all these were used for that they’re kept here and not in the regular greenhouses.”

“I think this wing was built for Princess Belladonna,” Sofi answered through a mouthful of cupcake, spraying both Aspen and Musette with bits of frosting and sponge. “So it’s probably used for witch shit.”

Eyes brightening with even further interest, Musette sat up. “Witch shit?”

Sofi shrugged, biting into another cupcake and smearing purplish frosting all over her upper lip. “Something like that, I dunno. I personally don’t know a lot about her. She was in charge before I was born, before Aspen’s parents were on the throne and all that.”

“I’ve seen a portrait somewhere in the palace with that name, I think.” Musette took her hairbrush from her bag before loosening her hair over her shoulder. The waterfall of gold looked like something out of a fairy tale.

“Oh, yeah, probably.” Sofi crossed her legs and tossed a crumpled-up cupcake liner to the box with the remaining cupcakes before grabbing another. Aspen wouldn’t mind - she rarely ever finished all her cupcakes on her own. “People refer to her as ‘the black maiden’ now and all that. I think she was Aspen’s dad’s….aunt? She was one of a bunch of Frostbanes, all of whom got married and made other little Frostbanes...and then she killed them all.”

Musette, brushing as she listened attentively, gestured for Sofi to continue.

“There was some kind of civil war while she was in charge. Aspen’s mom was a big shot on the side opposing the royal army. Her dad joined up with them since, y’know, I guess his aunt was still trying to kill him. Lots of people defected. I thiiiiiink I remember reading that Belladonna killed herself.” Sofi had never paid close attention to her modern history courses, to the chagrin of both of her parents and Nexus. That was more Aspen’s thing anyway. “The end.”

“Yikes.” Musette kept brushing, looking contemplative. “Why do you think she was a witch?”

“You saw that book earlier, right, the one in Aspen’s room?” Sofi vaguely remembered thrusting it into Musette’s face earlier that same evening. “It’s some really fucked up witchcraft, all full of blood sacrifice, black magic shit. Really dark. We stole it out of the room that must’ve been Belladonna’s back in the day.” Up until then, Sofi had never stopped to think of who had once lived in the room they’d blundered into. 

Musette scrunched her nose. “Why the hell would you two even still have that once you saw how creepy it is?”

Sofi shrugged, her pajama top sliding over a shoulder. She laid back down, closer to Musette so as to not disturb Aspen. There really wasn’t a good answer for that - she had joked about trying some of the rituals described in the book, true, but she didn’t think she had the stomach for any of it. “It looks cool I guess. The illustrations inside are really something else.”

Suddenly, Musette went rigid and alert, holding a hand up at Sofi. Her blue eyes were wide and unblinking, making Sofi jump a bit. “Did you hear that?”

“I don’t hear -”

Musette clamped a hand over Sofi’s mouth, smearing her lip balm. “ _Listen_.”

Sofi listened. At first, she heard nothing outside of Aspen’s deep, even breathing. Then she heard quite a bit more - muffled footsteps, a _lot_ of them, like people running. It didn’t sound close at all, more like it was echoing or vibrating from somewhere else in the palace, however it was that sound traveled. Around them, the western wing itself was still and quiet. It was a strange feeling, the contrast between the two. The footsteps were fast and frantic. “That sounds like a lot of people out of bed…” It was far too late for _anyone_ to be up and moving.

“A lot of people out of bed.” Musette was beginning to look stressed out all over again, her brush discarded on her lap, hands twirling at her hair nervously.

“They’re going to wake up Aspen,” Sofi complained, not really sure if they would or not.

On cue, Aspen rolled onto her side and away from them, frowning and snorting.

Sofi was beginning to hear sounds outside as well, though she couldn’t quite make any of it out beyond shouting. She strained to make out any words in the shouting, but couldn’t distinguish anything more than swears. Further towards the city, it sounded like even more noises were rolling in, cresting towards the palace.

Shrugging, Sofi turned back to Musette, who looked more antsy with each passing moment. “Any ideas?”

Without a sound, Musette slipped off the mattress and creeped on tiptoes toward the greenhouse wall. Pushing plants out of her way she leaned against the glass, and Sofi could see her warm breath fogging it up. She cupped her hands around her eyes, tilting her head towards the palace grounds. “They’re opening the gate.”

“The main gate?” It was the dead of night. Surely Musette was mistaken.

Musette rotated her head towards the city and its harbor. From behind, Sofi saw her back stiffen and her shoulders pull up towards her ears. “Sofi. Come here.” Her voice was soft, but carried a strong urgency.

Beginning to feel the tiniest bit nervous herself, Sofi joined Musette at the wall, Aspen still fast asleep and now splayed out like a starfish behind them. Immediately, her eyes went to the harbor, beyond the lights of the city. It was dark, but where earlier there had been an uninterrupted view from one side to the other, now massive, black shapes in the water stood in the way. There was a clear fleet of them, bizarrely shaped, filling the harbor almost to capacity. Sofi could have sworn she saw castle-like shapes in the darkness as well, but that had to be her eyes playing tricks on her. “What the actual fu -”

Musette jabbed a slender finger insistently towards the harbor. “The _flags_ , Sofi.”

Straining her eyes, Musette looked for a flag, and found several. They were dark, likely black as well, standing out against the night around them through their flapping movements. Pressing her face hard into the glass, she could make out a 66 on each of the sails.

“Tell me that’s not -” Musette started.

“It is,” Sofi answered, cutting off a stricken Musette.

“They...they weren’t supposed to arrive until after lunch tomorrow!” Musette, truly beginning to panic, looked over her shoulder at a sleeping, oblivious Aspen. “They have to be fucking joking with this.”

“They’re not.” Sofi had heard quite a bit about Germa and she was very sure they were not the joking type.

Musette held onto Sofi’s arm as they both looked to the harbor. “Well….at this late hour...they’re bound to just stay on their ships until the morning. Right?” Musette sounded as though she were trying to convince herself. “It would be ridiculous for them to try and come up to the palace in the middle of the night, they wouldn’t do it.”

“They would, and they are. You said yourself that the gate was opening.”

Anxiously bouncing from foot to foot, Musette looked back towards the path through the plants that they had taken in. “We need to go back to Aspen’s room.”

“So they can wake her up and drag her downstairs in the dead of night to deal with _that_ nightmare? No, thank you.” The very suggestion agitated Sofi. That was not fair to Aspen and she wasn’t going to entertain it. It was their last night to be alone together for months - well, alone together with Musette, anyway.

“But nobody knows we’re up here,” Musette protested, crossing and uncrossing her arms, casting nervous glances back towards the harbor. “If Nexus were to come looking for Aspen…”

“Bingo. Nobody knows we’re up here.” It had, of course, been completely accidental, but it worked out in Sofi’s favor all the same. She wondered if, in the future, she could play that up as an additional romantic gesture for Aspen. “He’ll be looking and not finding. All according to plan.”

Musette was not fooled. “Liar. This wasn’t part of the plan. You don’t have a plan for this.”

Sofi snorted. She walked away from the glass for a moment to grab the wine bottle and another cupcake. “I have a plan. We let Aspen sleep. It’s going to be ugly regardless, her waking up and them just...being here. It might be _slightly_ less ugly if she finds out after a full night’s sleep.” Truly, Sofi had no idea how much better that was going to be, as opposed to waking Aspen up and telling her right then. Yes, waking Aspen up would be rough, but her notoriously foul temper was ten times as volatile in the morning. “In the morning, we’ll sneak her down to her room, get dressed, punt her to Nexus, and go right along our merry way.”

She hoped she sounded more confident than she felt. Anything having to do with the Vinsmoke family had been a sore spot with Aspen for _years_ , and she had dreaded the visit from the day she’d accidentally found out about it. That anxiety had been dialed up significantly, for both Aspen and Sofi, after Musette had clued them into the little plan Gogo had cooked up. She had every intention of running as much interference as she could during the visit, but it seemed the entire _point_ of it was to get Aspen and Ichiji together in some kind of way, Gogo’s plan aside. There wasn’t really anything Sofi could do to fully prevent that.

Musette looked doubtful. “What if she wakes up before us?”

“Do you feel tired now?”

“No.”

“Good! Neither do I. But when we do, hopefully it’ll be morning by then. Or we can sleep in shifts.” Sofi and Aspen had slept in shifts before, for various things when they were little. Aspen was very good at keeping to her shift. Sofi...had varying degrees of success. “We don’t want Aspen wandering around looking for food while in morning zombie mode. Not with the guests here, and not in those pajamas.” Nexus would almost certainly have Sofi’s head mounted on a spike if Aspen reappeared in her too-thin, too-tight pajamas that she loved. Though at that moment, Sofi was sure Nexus wanted her head mounted on a spike anyway, if he had already begun searching for them.

“So…” Musette had mostly ceased her nervous tics, but she still looked very stressed and chewed on her bottom lip. “What do we do in the meantime?”

Sofi gestured back out the window, and handed the wine bottle to Musette. From where they stood, they had a clear view of the wide-open palace gates, and the road the led right up to them, through the city, from the harbor. A ways down, she could see a carriage. “We sit back and watch the show.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- leave it to Germa to ruin a good thing


	10. NEXUS III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- I'm sorry it took so fucking long to get to this point

“WHY WAS THERE NO ADVANCE NOTICE?” Nexus roared, trying to drink down as much boiling hot black coffee as he could without spilling it all over his new suit. Beneath his jacket, his light blue pinstripe shirt was still half-unbuttoned. His shoes were untied, and kept falling off. The cigarettes and lighter he _desperately_ needed had been left in his other suit which, along with his lab coat, was hanging on a hook in the apartment he and Wintergreen shared. _“COMPLETELY_ IMPROPER, ON OUR PART AND THEIRS. WHY WAS THERE NO CALL FROM THE OUTER GATE PATROL? OR ANY OTHER STATION FROM HERE TO THE PORT?”

Behind him, a careful distance away, Priya and Anja were walking lockstep, their boots clicking against the tile, listening to his ranting but answering none of it. To their credit, they had turned up quickly when called, dressed in their identical guard uniforms, makeup on, not a single hair out of place. Priya’s face was stormy, and Anja had the look of one who was trapped in a nightmare. 

Staff members who had been urgently roused by their supervisors scrambled to set up the remaining touches for the Vinsmokes of Germa - whom they had been told would not arrive until the next afternoon. They were rushing from place to place, trying to finish in minutes what would normally take hours. Two staffers rushed past Nexus, accompanying carts loaded with oversized mugs and crates of the strongest alcohol the kingdom had. Another few carried trays of finger foods. All of them scattered when Nexus sprinted past, the northern wing in his sights.

“Aspen will not like this at all,” he heard Anja nervously whisper to Priya.

“This _is_ unorthodox and unprecedented,” Priya conceded, still sounding very unhappy with her own late night rousing. “Not to mention this will not give the best impression of Aspen to her future family. If we take the time needed to get her properly ready, we will be late to greet them. If we rush to be on time, she will look a mess.”

“Not that it _matters_ ,” Anja added as Nexus eavesdropped while they made their way through the northern wing as quickly as they could. “She will be in one hell of a mood no matter what we do. You want a first impression? She’ll tell them where their rooms are, tell them to fuck off, and then she will fall asleep on the floor or the closest couch.”

Nexus could, unfortunately, picture this exact scenario with clarity. His coffee sloshed over the edge of his mug and he pulled his body as concave as he could, leaving it to splatter onto the carpeting in a wide, dark stain. At the end of the hall, Aspen’s door was closed, and from beneath, he could see her room was dark. When they reached it, Nexus took a deep breath, and pounded hard on the door. “Aspen. Your highness. There’s been a change of plans.”

No answer, outside of furious yowling and scratching from Jack.

Banging more insistently, Nexus continued, trying to suppress the very real panic attack he could feel coming on. He was not ready to face them tonight. “Our guests have arrived early. Very early. You _don’t_ need to wear a dress, but you _do_ need to wake up and come greet them.”

Sticking a paw beneath the door, Jack gripped it with his claws and shook it in its frame, his yowling sounding almost as insistent as Nexus.

Nexus gave a helpless look to Priya and Anja. He was tired - very tired - and his brain was still trying to process what was happening. 

“Go in there and wake her ass up,” Priya instructed Nexus firmly, looking unimpressed by his hesitation. “We do not have time for this.”

"But be nice,” Anja cautioned, grabbing Nexus’s arm with a white-gloved hand. “It _is_ officially her birthday by now. And it would be very inconvenient if she did to her room what she did to that section of the eastern wing.”

Bracing himself to be flung into a wall by a half-awake and angry Aspen, Nexus turned the knob and gingerly nudged the door open. “Aspen?”

With a final loud yowl, Jack shot out between Nexus’s legs and was gone in a blur of white. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Nexus could see the room was empty. The bed had been made hours before and not slept in since, and he could see the bathroom was quiet and dark as well.

Momentarily stunned, Nexus stood in the doorway, his free hand gripping the frame tightly. How had she known? And where had she gone? Weren’t Sofi and Musette with her as well? He was sure he had seen them all head back to Aspen’s room together. Unsure of what to do, he turned on the light, and checked under the bed. “Aspen?”

“I’ll check Sofi Sanofi’s room!” Anja volunteered, quickly turning around and opening the door on the opposite side of the hallway. “Your highness? Sofi? Musette?”

“Don’t bother.” Priya seemed surprised by Aspen’s disappearing act, but just as much at a loss on how to proceed. She kept opening her mouth to speak and then closing it, pressing her bright red lips together in a tight frown. After a few long seconds, she finally spoke up. “Well, what do we do now?”

Back towards the hub of the palace, Nexus could hear the panicked rushing of staff increase tenfold. Interspersed in the frantic footsteps were shouting and swearing. The combined noise was shaking some of the old, framed paintings hanging between doors, sending down dust that the staff had missed on their rounds. It seemed that their guests had arrived, and neither Nexus nor Aspen had been waiting to greet them. It was a very bad look indeed - one neither Germa nor the council were likely to ignore.

“We go back and we greet our guests.” Nexus took a deep breath before pouring the rest of his still-scalding hot coffee down his throat. He set the mug on the bedside table usually reserved for Sofi before tying his shoes and buttoning his shirt. His palm running over his told him that his stubble was growing in quickly. Wintergreen loved that look - but it was the opposite of what he’d hoped for, for this. “I need at least one of you to pull some staffers together and start combing the castle for them. If we can’t find them right now, they’re bound to turn up in the morning.” Musette, at the very least, would show up for work.

Priya and Anja exchanged a quick, nervous look.

“Will Germa take Aspen’s absence as an insult?” Anja asked nervously, beginning to fiddle with her braid again as they ran as quickly as they could out of the northern wing. 

The answer, of course, was _yes_. “I take offense to them showing up in the dead of night with no notice and then not even having the grace to stay in their own castle.” It didn’t matter whether they had Aspen or not, and Nexus knew it. No matter what, Judge Vinsmoke would take offense to his very presence once he laid eyes on him. Just as he always had.

Back in the central hub, all the noise and shouting that Nexus had heard not even ten minutes before had evaporated into a thick, tense silence. A few staff members had remained, backs flat against the wall, wringing their aprons in their hands, looking at each other nervously. On the eastern side of the hub, Nexus could see lights on in one of the larger receiving rooms, casting light into an otherwise dark area.

Standing outside the door, directly to the left, was Espresso, one of the palace staff supervisors. He was dressed to the nines in a brown suit and top hat, despite having had just as much notice as everyone else. When he saw Nexus approaching, he lowered his eyes and quickly walked away without a word, slipping a note into Nexus’s pocket. Nexus removed the note and opened it, seeing one word: “angry.”

That was about what he had been anticipating. Inside the room, he could hear them talking among themselves.

“They have a lot of nerve just leaving us to sit in here by ourselves, even if they gave us booze.” A young man, not Judge. One of the boys. Hearing his voice made Nexus’s chest tighten exponentially. Was he really ready for this?

“We have shown up far earlier than what we told them. It is very late at night and most of the staff were likely sleeping.” A female voice, quieter and calmer. Even though it had been years, Nexus knew it was his niece. “That they were able to accommodate us this much on no notice whatsoever was very thoughtful of them.”

“That’s _their_ problem.” Another one of the boys spoke up, his voice far deeper and angrier than his brother’s. “There was barely anyone outside to greet us. They should be _grateful_ that we’re spending any time at all on this frozen wasteland of an island - and this princess had better be all they keep telling us she is…”

“We’ve discussed the strategic importance of Hoarfrost.” A horribly familiar, older voice rebuked the former. Just hearing him made Nexus want to run in the room and tear his throat out - after so many years, the anger was as raw as ever. “This marriage, when it finally takes place, will be a step closer towards re-establishing our dominion over the North Blue.”

Taking one last deep breath to steady his nerves and soothe the anger boiling within, Nexus stepped into the room.

The lighting in the room was scant, restricted only to lamps flanking the door, and not a single member of the Vinsmoke family had opted to sit in these seats within the reach of the light. They had decided on the large couches, lounges, and armchairs set further back into the shadows. Nexus could not make out a single face, but he could feel all their eyes on him. Walls painted a deep, dark forest green absorbed what little light was cast, adding to the overall ominous atmosphere - it felt almost suffocating.

Feeling for a moment as though he may truly throw up all the coffee he’d guzzled, Nexus stood in silence. After feeling he could trust his stomach again, he spoke. “Welcome to the Kingdom of Hoarfrost, and the great palace of Snøvanger. I would like to take a moment to apologize for the harried reception you received. We did not expect you until tomorrow.”

“It _is_ tomorrow,” the same angry voice from before griped.

“Be quiet,” the older voice growled.

Nexus’s eyes slowly adjusted to the dark, and he could make out bits and pieces of the people sat before him. Sitting in an armchair only scarcely out of the light was a young woman, pink haired and elegant, with blue eyes that nearly matched his own. Behind her, on one of the couches, sat two of her brothers, both taller than Nexus. He could not tell which two they were in the dark, but the angry voice had come from one of them. Nexus did not dare look in the direction of the two larger armchairs, where he could see a large, imposing man out of the corner of his eye, the remaining brother beside him. “Again, my deepest apologies. I felt it best that formal introductions take place tomorrow, after everyone has had a chance to rest. If you would all please follow me, I would be more than happy to escort -”

“Where is Princess Aspen?” A calmer, softer voice spoke, coming from the direction where Nexus had pointedly not looked.

“I - I beg your pardon?” Nexus’s hope had been to hustle them off to their rooms and speak to them as little as possible at that juncture. He needed time to return back to his apartment and hyperventilate in peace. “Her royal highness was feeling under the weather. I opted to let her sleep.” Sweat began prickling on his forehead, and he was grateful they had no way of seeing. If Aspen didn’t resurface in the morning…

“I see. I come all this way - _we_ come all this way - and Aspen decides to sleep. Interesting.” The calm voice was extremely cold. “How stupid of me to think she would bother, for the first time meeting since we were matched.”

“I assure you, her royal highness is very anxious to finally meet you, Prince Ichiji.” Nexus lied through his teeth. Aspen was anxious, that much was true. She would beat Nexus upside the head if she could hear him. “She has been personally involved in the preparations for you and your family’s arrival. It’s part of why she was so exhausted tonight. Please remember, we were not expecting any of you until tomorrow.”

That part was not technically a lie. He remembered Aspen watching a few staffers fail at vacuuming curtains - that counted, didn’t it? And she had seen all the other preparations from as far away as possible with a pinched scowl. Nexus was more than happy to count it as truth.

“We are all exhausted as well.” The young woman, the Princess Reiju, rose from her seat and walked to Nexus. As she drew closer to the light, he could see so much of his sister in her features - particularly the eyes. “I think retiring to our rooms would be best. We’ll be here for a while; there is no reason introductions can’t wait.”

Nexus gave his niece a grateful smile, wondering if she remembered him at all. Her face was fixed in a polite smile, and he could sense no recognition from her. “Thank you for your understanding. Please, if you would all just follow me…”

It felt like the walk to the eastern wing took longer than it ever had before. Both Priya and Anja had vanished to look for the girls, leaving Nexus alone to escort their guests to the living quarters. Every couple of minutes a staff member would show up in their path, only to quickly turn and run in the opposite direction. Nexus tiredly wished he could do the same. He had not slept well at all, and he was rapidly losing both his second wind and caffeine rush.

Reiju spoke again shortly after they passed under the arch for the eastern wing. “I do not believe we’ve had your name yet.”

“Nexus,” he answered, feeling the cold glare of the Vinsmoke patriarch on the back of his head, intensified by the lie. “I served as regent of Hoarfrost Kingdom until yesterday. Princess Aspen is now old enough to assume all the duties of the throne. She has asked that I serve as her direct, most senior advisor.” Nexus knew full well that meant doing everything as he had before, for who knew how long.

Deep in the wing, they finally reached rows of bedroom doors, all closed. For every couple of doors that were plain, there was one with a different carved animal above its frame. The eastern wing was one of the few places in the palace untouched by the civil war; as such, all its ornamentation was close to 200 years old. The council had insisted on hosting the Vinsmokes there for that specific reasoning - it was the perfect show of Hoarfrost’s opulence and dignity. Not that the guests were likely to appreciate it in any way. “I have assigned staff to tend to each of you. We will do our best to accommodate your every need for the duration of your stay, to the best of our ability. Each bedroom has a bathroom, as well as a transponder with which to contact your staff as needed. The contact information has been written down and provided for you. Tomorrow, all staff assigned will be moving into the smaller branches of the eastern wing as to be close, should you need them. They will meet you around 9:30 in the morning with details for breakfast and anything else I have forgotten at this juncture.” Nexu took a deep breath. It had been quite a bit of information to recite - information that originally was to be covered by Mocha. He hoped he hadn’t forgotten anything.

He indicated a door with a winter fox carved over it. “Princess, this is your room.”

Reiju gave Nexus a small bow, and broke away from her family. She disappeared into the dark of her painstakingly prepared room without a word.

Nexus turned to a door on the opposite side of the hall. “Prince Ichiji, this room is -”

“Where is Princess Aspen’s room?”

Stiffening angrily beneath his formal exterior, Nexus cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, my lord, what was that you just -”

“Where is Aspen’s bedroom?” Ichiji asked once more, in the same chilly tone as in the lounge. Though one eye was covered by a long section of red hair, he kept the other fixed on Nexus. “I assume it’s not here.”

His brothers snickered.

“The northern wing.” Even that felt like entirely too much information to provide him, and the way his eldest nephew smirked in response made his stomach clench.

From the darkness of the hall, the angry brother chimed in slyly. “Looks like you found a need they’re not willing to accommodate for you.” There was more snickering.

Nexus could feel himself getting incredibly hot under the collar. This was the exact sort of thing Aspen had dreaded for years. He turned away, leaving Ichiji standing alone by the bedroom door. “Further down the hall….”

In short order, he put away his remaining two nephews, trying his hardest to give nothing away as he studied them from the shadows. Yonji, the youngest brother, with green hair, was larger in every dimension from his other brothers - taller and more muscled all around. Like Reiju, he went to bed without a word, though he continued to chuckle to himself. Niji, the second son, was the last of the siblings to be roomed. He kept his head down, his blue hair concealing his face. Nexus caught a glimpse of fully opaque goggles, and his stomach gave a funny jolt as he remembered something he had tried hard to forget. Niji made no eye contact or sound as he retreated to his room, outside of slamming his door behind him.

Nexus stared at his door a few seconds longer, feeling sympathetic in spite of himself. He was almost glad, at that moment, that his sister was not alive for this. He steeled himself with another deep breath before turning and facing his hated brother in law, the man responsible for everything the Vinsmoke family was now.

More than twice Nexus’s height, Judge Vinsmoke, the king of Germa, was a physically imposing monster of a man. His dark blonde hair came past his elbows, crowned at the top by a metal helmet, copper in color, with stylized wings on the sides. Arms like tree trunks ended in clenched fists the size of serving plates. Through the eye holes of the helmet, he was looking down at Nexus with dark blue eyes brimming with contempt. “So this is where you crawled off to.”

Not budging further, Nexus extended a hand and pointed into the darkness. “Your room is that way.”

“For years, I expected to receive news of you having drowned somewhere, or begging for table scraps on an irrelevant island in the middle of nowhere.” Judge did not move either, eyeing Nexus like vermin that had crawled out from under a rug. “Not in one of the highest positions of power in the richest, largest kingdom in the North Blue. A kingdom I have been trying to gain a foothold in since before I married Sora.”

Nexus could’ve killed him for daring to utter her name. Again, he pointed, taking a few small steps away. “Your room is down there.”

Judge slowed continued walking once again, heavy footsteps shaking the walls of the quiet corridor. To Nexus’s intense dislike, he kept pace with him, walking blood-boilingly close to him. “Is this marriage agreement owed in any way to you?” Nexus could tell Judge was loathe to even consider the possibility.

“Ichiji is my eldest nephew and I love him because that is what my sister would have wanted.” Nexus noticed Judge flinch at the words ‘my sister.’ “But if I had my way, I would not permit him _or_ his brothers to be within the same sea as her, let alone under the same roof. Not with the full knowledge of what you have done to them.” Nexus had been on Walrin’s council when the marriage offers began pouring in from Germa, and counseled strongly against them every time - not that Walrin needed encouragement. Of course, it hadn’t mattered in the end.

“How fortunate for me that you _didn’t_ have your way.” The end of the hall drew near and in the dark, Nexus could make out the final bedroom with a large, carved eagle above the door, its wings spread wide. “Hoarfrost will be a great political and financial victory for Germa when the kingdoms merge. I only wish that angry bastard Walrin was still alive to see it.”

Nexus grew only angrier at the slight towards Aspen’s father; he owed everything he had gained to Walrin. He had only been able to come as far as he had in his research due to Walrin’s faith in his abilities. Nexus quickly concealed his hands in his pockets so Judge would not notice his hands tight in fists, shaking. “On the subject of anger...I’m sure you already know that Ichiji is going to get more than he is bargaining for with Aspen. She’s a firecracker - which is to say, she will blow his hands off if he handles her wrong.”

Judge snorted derisively, his eyes narrowing. “I received your council’s report when I sent them Ichiji’s. The girl is scarcely five feet tall, and was a sickly child who suffered from constant seizures for years. _You_ should be fully aware there is nothing about her that could stand to threaten Ichiji in any way.”

“Oh?” Surprise took over Nexus’s anger, and he turned his head away so Judge would not see it in his face. Had the council opted _not_ to disclose Aspen’s extra-sensory abilities? It was certainly something they could have done to make her seem more appealing - it is harder to morph a princess into a tractable, agreeable wife if you know she could throw you through walls with the wave of a hand. “You really think so?”

“I am not going to entertain this nonsense of yours any longer. She is a beautiful princess and will likely...please Ichiji, once they have been brought together.” Nexus did not like the way Judge said the word ‘please,’ nor the implication of the entire statement, and he bit his tongue rather than blurt out something he would regret. If Judge did not know, Ichiji did not know. And that would be an advantage.

Again, Nexus indicated the bedroom. “Your room. Go.”

Judge took umbrage at Nexus’s sharp tone, and his eyes narrowed further inside his helmet. “You had better watch yourself. I’m still king.”

“Not my king,” Nexus reminded him, smiling at the thought. Judge’s face purpled as he turned away, his cape swiping at Nexus. He entered his bedroom and closed the door, leaving Nexus standing alone in the dark, able to breathe at last.

Absently, Nexus patted his breast pocket, feeling for a lighter and cigarettes that were not there. The anger and loathing he felt was ebbing away and being replaced with feelings of sadness and exhaustion. Sadness for the niece and nephews who had never known a normal life. Exhaustion for him, both physically and mentally. How much damage had been done on his account? Nexus couldn’t image. He slowly began his walk back to the hub.

He was almost back to the hub when the hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up in alarm. Someone was following him. Wide awake again, he whipped around, feeling several vertebrae in his neck painfully pop. “Who’s there?”

Reiju slipped out from the shadows.

 _"At least it isn’t Judge, or one of the boys.”_ Nexus thought, relaxing slightly. Retaining his formality, he gave Reiju a bow as she walked to him. “Princess Reiju, did you need -”

“Uncle.”

Nexus stopped mid-sentence, stunned into silence by a title he had not been called in so very long. His heart began to beat strangely. Reiju, who had been observing him cautiously, broke into a wide smile and hugged him.

“It _is_ you.” He hugged her back, thinking briefly of how she had loved when he would transition from a hug to twirling her around. She had been so much smaller then. “I knew it.”

His mouth pulled into a broad smile of its own, his eyes beginning to dampen. _She remembered him_. “I knew you at first sight. You look so much like your mother. I’m sure this sounds extremely cliche and corny -” He pulled away from their hug slightly, taking in his now-adult niece. Aside from her vividly pink hair, she was the spitting image of Sora. “ -You’ve gotten so big.”

“It’s been over ten years since I saw you last.”

Nexus had never felt so old before, in that exact moment. He was aware of every grey hair, every aching joint, the bones that had broken long ago and had never been quite the same since. How had so much time passed? “It’s a relief to me to see that you and your brothers are doing well.”

Reiju’s face fell, and she got a distant look in her eyes. “That’s not how I would describe it. You saw how they are - or you at least got the idea. What do you think?”

Nexus honestly did not know what to think. Even in light of their modifications, he remembered how his sister had been _so proud_ of her sons, sitting in her hospital bed, trying to hold all four of them without squishing one into the other and failing. They had gotten worse with every consecutive year, and it had already gotten quite ugly when Nexus had left. One of them was gone, now, and it was bittersweet to think it was the only son who made his sister’s sacrifice worth it. The blueprints of what, precisely, had been done to them sat under lock and key in his lab. He knew what they were now, and it wasn’t quite human. “I was trying to be polite in saying that, I suppose. It does still apply to you, anyway.”

Reiju let out a small laugh, gazing out over the hub towards the large skylight.

“I made a promise, you know,” Nexus said suddenly, leaning against the arch for the eastern wing. The sconce light above was too bright for his eyes, and he again felt for cigarettes he didn’t have. “To your mother, before I left, to help you and your brothers.”

She regarded him warily, her eyes dark with doubt as she folded slender arms over her chest. “Is that even possible anymore? Father has told all of us that his work can’t be undone. That we’re his finest research project.”

Knowing Judge referred to the children Sora had loved dearly as _research projects_ sickened Nexus. “Does he? That is very interesting, considering it isn’t his work at all.” He paused, watching Reiju out of the corner of his eye as he focused on the giant chandelier. Nexus knew she would not like what he said next - something that haunted him still.

She looked very surprised at the sentiment. “He’s talked about his scientific career at length, and in detail.”

“I never said he wasn’t a scientist.” Judge hadn’t been a bad one either, and that ate at Nexus too. Judge knew enough to know how much damage he’d done to his own children. “All I said was that the research on lineage factors, and the powerful modifications that could be applied - namely, what has been done to you and your brothers - is not his work.” 

Judge had never been _that_ good. Nexus felt disgusted with himself for even the slightest amount of pride in that.

“But his work with Dr. Vegapunk -” Reiju insisted. “He was almost apprehended by the world government -”

“Again: not him. But the only person who could refute his claims hasn’t lived in Germa for a very long time.”

Reiju’s mouth was slightly open in confusion, before everything clicked into place for her. Eyes widening in shock, she looked at Nexus as though she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“That was all my work,” Nexus admitted, feeling dirty, proud, and ashamed as he breathed it aloud for the first time in years. “I did it all. And I am coming close to undoing it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Judge can fuck right off


	11. ASPEN III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- WARNING: It gets rape-y. And blackmail-y.  
> \- There is smut in this chapter. It's all pretty non-con for the most part. Lots of self-loathing too.  
> \- If that's your thing go nuts

Aspen couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept so good. She had woken up on her own, blinking at the sunlight that had worked its way through the clouds to shine directly in her eyes. That part had actually kind of sucked. But everything prior to waking up had been great.

She’d left Musette and Sofi asleep on the mattress, all cuddled in each other’s arms and looking cute as hell. They had been lucky enough to fall asleep at such an angle that one of the larger plants with wide, flat leaves had blocked all the sun from their faces. Aspen, half-awake and hungry, had envied them.

After a bathroom pit stop to brush her teeth, Aspen - fully in her morning zombie mode - stumbled through the very, very dark western wing to the palace hub. The kitchen always had breakfast waiting in one of the smaller, glass-enclosed dining rooms. She hoped Nexus was not there - she had not bothered to change out of her pajamas, or dig in her overnight bag for her robe. Her pajamas were as thin, small, and form-fitting as ever, and Nexus had frequently compared it to her walking around naked. He would yell at her if he saw her.

The smart thing would’ve been to change, or get her robe. But Aspen was craving orange juice _hard_.

Even half awake as she was, Aspen had the feeling something was amiss as she stumbled into the hub in search of food. The palace was silent, almost deathly so, and it was usually bustle and loudness. But, then, plenty of staffers had left the day before for their temporary reassignments. That was the likely cause - she certainly hadn’t seen any staff members in her journey.

Shuffling to the railing overlooking the crystal chandelier, Aspen could see every floor on the way to the bottom. Through her blurry vision, she saw nothing - it was a veritable ghost town in the hub. _“Do I go back for Musette and Sofi?_ ” Aspen thought, brain still slowed by sleep.

But _orange juice_. And it was her birthday! Her actual birthday! The birthday girl demanded orange juice.

The small glass dining rooms were on the ground level, and on the opposite side of the hub from where she currently was. Luckily, Aspen had a shortcut. Slowly pulling herself onto the railing, she laid against it for the briefest moment, using only her focus to hold herself level as she felt the cold metal pressing into her skin. And with that, she rolled off.

Aspen fell through the air like she always had, beginning to slow herself as she drew close to the ground. Her pajama shirt blew up and around her head, throwing her off, and then - within feet of the ground level - she crashed into someone. Hard. It was like landing diaphragm-first onto a fence post. Usually, the staff were much more on the soft side.

Gasping for air, Aspen landed hard on her back, shirt still tangled with her hair over her face. Catching herself slightly before her head could fully collide with the tile, she struggled to breathe and to yank her shirt back over her fully exposed chest. When she was able to breathe again, albeit painfully, she rolled onto her knees as she yank her shirt back down. It was a thin shirt, not much better than tissue paper, but it was better than _nothing_.

Dignity in shambles, Aspen stumbled to her feet and whipped around in a rage. The stranger she had landed on - some weirdo with blue hair, goggles, and spiked headphones that had been knocked around his neck - was gawking at her lecherously, jaw hanging wide open. 

“WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING!” Aspen snarled, ignoring the fact that she had been the one who had taken the unconventional way down.

The stranger said nothing, still openly drooling over the barely-dressed Aspen. He was standing entirely too close for comfort, towering over her. Aspen could make out the thread in the buttons of his white dress shirt, and she could smell whatever soap he used. It smelled pleasant and sweet - but that only made Aspen’s blush deepen.

Angry and embarrassed, Aspen gave up on glaring at the strange guy, who seemed content to ignore her irritation to shamelessly stare at her. She left him standing alone as she slowly stumbled away, still feeling like she’d been punched in the gut. Who was responsible for just letting a guest wander off unattended? It had not at all been Aspen’s intention to start her birthday off by treating a stranger to the best view in the palace (according to Sofi). She held both hands over her stomach, her bare feet cold on the tile. It hurt even to breathe.

The urge to go crawl back into bed with Sofi and Musette was stronger than ever. But first - orange juice. She’d come so far, she could _smell_ the eggs and fairy toast. More awake than she wanted to be, Aspen ventured on. She could see the dining room ahead, separated from the main section of the hub by glass walls swirled to opacity with silver and white. As she got closer, she could hear talking inside, and the sounds of plates and cutlery. Possibly Nexus and Wintergreen, or maybe even Priya and Anja. Aspen would not mention the encounter with the stranger to any of them.

“Your royal highness?” A familiar voice startled Aspen. “Many of the staff, they have been on the lookout for you!”

Aspen blearily looked in the direction of the voice and saw bright orange hair and a rainbow of scarves. Oh _no_. “Yes, hi, good morning Khoya, so good to see you.” She tried to hustle much faster towards the door, the jostling making her what little she had in tits bounce in an uncomfortable manner. “I’m just gonna go get some food -”

“You _mustn’t.”_ Khoya was faster than anticipated, due to Aspen still being slightly crippled by the pain in her gut. She grabbed Aspen firmly around the waist, putting pressure exactly where the pain was. “The princess must go back to where she was, or back to her room to get dressed! You must trust Khoya!”

“Let GO of me,” Aspen demanded, yanking free and throwing herself towards the door as she accidentally launched Khoya backwards. The dining room door opened as Aspen reached it, leaving her falling forward through the doorway. Unable to catch herself in time, she slammed directly into someone who had been leaving. It was like tripping into a wall.

Behind her, Khoya gasped.

“Sorry!” Aspen tried to pull herself into a standing position against, accidentally clawing at the new stranger’s black shirt. The shirt was too smooth, and so were the abs Aspen could feel beneath. Very nice. But not particularly helpful. Her hair was back in her face _again_ from how hard she’d thrown herself forward, further impeding her. “I’m sor -”

Aspen suddenly found herself being grasped firmly by her wrists and yanked back into a standing position. She heard both wrists popping. Nobody had ever man-handled her in such a way before - and she was at a loss on how to respond. Shaking her hair out of her eyes, Aspen lifted her head. “I really am so sor -” Again, she stopped before she could finish, getting a good look at the new stranger’s face, locking her green eyes with his blue ones. Her mouth went dry, and she felt a heavy lump in her throat.

Frowning down at her, her so-called future husband lifted her higher by her wrists, leaving her toes barely brushing the ground. It was an uncomfortable position, and Aspen found herself twisting by her wrists trying to get footing somehow. He was holding her close to him - _extremely_ close to him - and every squirm from Aspen brushed her body against his. She could feel the pressed fabric of his shirt and pants against her bare skin, and it gave her goosebumps. Still unable to speak, she dangled wordlessly, unable to look away from his face. Aspen watched as his eyes moved from her barely-concealed chest to her waist, and then to her hips. He began grinning at her just as lecherously as the earlier stranger - but this look gave her a much more uneasy feeling in her gut.

“Aspen!” Nexus burst out of the dining room, dressed smartly in a new suit with his blonde-grey hair styled for a change. The lab coat he wore over the suit was cleaner than any of his others - it still looked white. “Where have you been?”

 _“This_ is Aspen Frostbane?” Ichiji Vinsmoke switched to holding Aspen’s wrists with one hand, putting the other on the small of her back and pulling her closer, pressing her chest into his. She hadn’t banked on him being _so_ much bigger than her, even as slender as he was. Aspen stared at Nexus and back at Ichiji again, uncertain how to respond.

“....Who’s Aspen?” Aspen asked awkwardly, finally finding her tongue and raising the worst possible misdirection she had ever thought of. The next thought that came to mind was _“So the muscles I heard about weren’t a lie,”_ but that certainly didn’t seem better.

Unsurprisingly, Ichiji was in no way fooled. Nor was the other person who came out behind Nexus, more heavily muscled and taller, with green hair. When he saw Aspen held against Ichiji, his eyes just about popped out of his head.

“Put her _down_ ,” Nexus snapped, already looking remarkably stressed for so early on in the day. She could practically feel several more blonde hairs going fully grey at that exact moment.

“ASPEN!” Musette and Sofi came flying out of nowhere, Sofi in her light pink robe and Musette dressed for her shift in a brand new, much better fitting uniform. They came to a screeching halt when they saw Ichiji holding her, stopping several feet away, looking nervously at each other. Aspen could tell that _they had known he was already here_. She was going to have to Have Words with them later.

Ichiji released Aspen gracelessly, letting her fall to the ground and bang her knees against the tile. Sofi, still breathing heavily, ran up behind her and threw a lavender robe over her shoulders, too little too late. Aspen looked over her shoulder to give her the unfriendliest look she could manage.

“Sorry...Nexus…” Panting, Sofi yanked Aspen to her feet and pulled her possessively into her arms, giving a dirty look to Ichiji, who was still staring. “Thought….we’d….wake up...before she did…”

For a second, Aspen contemplated the consequences of punching Sofi in the head.

“My apologies!” Musette, chest heaving through her uniform as she tried to catch her breath still, bowed deeply to Nexus. The fabric of her new dress pulled taut across her chest with every gasp she pulled in.

The green-haired prince ( _“Who the fuck is he again?”_ Aspen tried to remember) caught sight of Musette, all short of breath and flustered. His jaw dropped open hard and his eyes seemed to fully pop out of his head. Blushing deeply, Musette crossed her arms over her chest and turned away, which did nothing but make her appear even cuter.

“Sofi.” Nexus spoke very slowly and firmly, sounding as though he was trying very hard to not have a stroke as he pinched hard at the bridge of his nose. “Khoya. Please take her royal highness to her room and help her get dressed. Musette, please stay with me and assist with our guests.”

Khoya, who had remained silently off to the side to watch the horror unfold, quickly rushed to Aspen, grabbing one arm as Sofi grabbed the other. Without wasting another second, they dragged Aspen away, leaving a wide-eyed Musette at Nexus’s side, still being shamelessly ogled by Ichiji’s brother. Even through her anger and bewilderment, she wished she could wait to hear the excuses Nexus would try to make for her - ‘sleepwalking’ was a favorite. She looked over her shoulder only to see Ichiji watching her still, same smirk in place. It gave her a weird feeling she did not like at all.

*****

Dressed in her regular top and leggings with her silver cape at her back, Aspen sat silently beside Ichiji in one of the formal meeting rooms in the palace, warmed by a large fireplace and the cozy, two-seater couch everyone had insisted the two of them share. She said not a word, largely due to having mostly lost her voice screaming at Sofi after she and Khoya had dragged her back to her room. Even now, she couldn’t wrap her head around Sofi’s thought process. How could she have thought it was _better_ to not tell her immediately when she and Musette had realized Germa had arrived? _How was that better?_ Aspen tried to keep her gaze downwards, picking at her cuticles nervously. She didn’t think she could stand it if she looked at him to find him staring at her still.

The council had shown up in full reptilian force, fawning over the King of Germa as though he was a soldier returning from years away at battle. It was disgusting to watch. And Aspen liked this king less and less the more he spoke - though she had not liked him very much to begin with. Everyone else - the king, the council, Nexus, and Ichiji’s siblings - sat around a large table like _normal_ people. Not in some dumb couch too close to one another. Musette stood silently behind Nexus, hands together, head down.

“We are aware, of course, that Hoarfrost and Germa have not had the most amiable history,” Nils had simpered, his mouth puckering like a cat’s asshole. “But the planned marriage in two years’ time is a step towards a bright and more cooperative future.”

Aspen struggled to suppress a gag. Again, she could feel Ichiji staring.

“And the merger of two kingdoms into one will be an accomplishment that will be the envy of other kingdoms - and not just in the North Blue,” Judge had added, practically gloating, glancing over at Aspen and Ichiji. Aspen kept her face pointedly blank every time he looked at her, expressing neither false happiness nor the true contempt she felt. She could tell that it was annoying to him. Aspen wished she could pull that stupid helmet off his head and hit him with it.

“I know Princess Aspen has certainly been thinking about this match almost every day since she signed the contract,” Andreas volunteered, looking more like discarded biscuit dough than a person with how powdery and lumpy his skin was. “Such a shame that we all must wait two more years for the wedding.”

The gag that followed that statement, Aspen didn’t have the strength to fully suppress, and she made a peculiar, throaty coughing noise. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ichiji give her a long, suspicious stare, his arms unmoving from their folded position on his chest. She did not like the way he looked at her, at all - his blue eyes, while beautiful, were cold, and it felt like he saw her as an object instead of another person.

“If only there was a way for the marriage to take place sooner,” Torvig joked, his nasally tone almost unbearable.

“Don’t you and the other lizards have some delicious flies you should be eating right now?” Aspen, remembering Gogo’s plan for the marriage to take place sooner, had snapped, unable to stay quiet any longer. In her outburst, she had momentarily forgotten where she was, who was present, and who she was sitting next to.

The room went instantly, ringingly silent. Torvig and the other nine reptiles gawked at her, mouths opening and closing. Nexus grimaced, shutting his eyes. Musette had jerked her head up, mouth open. Ichiji stared at her disdainfully - and it took all Aspen had to not let him know just how she felt about his _constant staring_.

Suddenly, there was a loud cackle of laughter further down the table, by Nexus. Ichiji’s siblings had been sitting silently in a row for the meeting, but now Prince Niji - who, unfortunately for Aspen, was the same blue-haired stranger she’d flashed earlier - was loudly laughing at Aspen’s comment. Beside him, Prince Yonji - the large brother whose name Aspen couldn’t recall earlier, the one who’d lost his cool watching Musette - began laughing as well.

The council began chuckling humorlessly as well. “Ah, ha ha, very funny your highness,” Torvig’s forced smile did not reach his furious eyes. “So very funny.”

Musette gave Aspen a tight, encouraging smile, complete with a small thumbs up. At that moment, Yonji turned around to drool over Musette again, just as he had several times already in the time that they had been in the room. Musette’s smile vanished and she bowed her head again.

“Have we finished here?” Nexus tiredly asked, circles under his eyes at peak darkness levels already. “I feel it may be best to let our guests settle into the palace, as this will be their home for the next several months. We still have the formal reception tonight with important members of the kingdom. Down time would be nice.”

“Ah, and I’m sure everyone will also want to wish the Princess Aspen a happy birthday as well,” Lars quietly spoke, his voice slicker than oil. He was one of the more forgettable members of the reptile collective, but Aspen despised him no less than the others. “Yes, we can adjourn for now. Princess Aspen, it would be a very nice gesture if you were to show Prince Ichiji around the palace.”

It was an order, not a request. And Aspen had no way of protesting in front of everyone without making things worse for Nexus. She pursed her lips together, seething.

They all stood, and began to file towards the exit. Yonji was so distracted looking over his shoulder at Musette that he slammed into the wall directly to the side of the door. Ichiji followed his father and siblings out, leaving Aspen alone on the couch. She let out a frustrated groan, relieved for a moment free from his gaze, before following everyone out. 

“Nexus.” Judge stopped just outside the door, his voice constricting as he looked down at Nexus, who had emerged just before Aspen. “Could I speak to you in private, perhaps?”

“I…” Nexus looked at Aspen worriedly, and then back at Judge. She saw his grip tighten on the handle of his coffee mug. “Yes, I suppose so.”

They both turned and walked back into the room they had just left. Nexus gave Aspen a last worried look before the door closed.

Aspen stood still on the other side of the door as the council slowly dispersed, leaving her and Musette alone with Ichiji and his siblings. No Nexus to help her, at that moment - and she couldn’t just wait outside the door for him like a puppy. Sofi had been sent to the conservatory to practice piano rather than hang around. Musette had to watch her mouth as a staff member. Aspen was, in essence, on her own in dealing with them.

She had barely taken two steps away from the meeting room before Niji stepped directly in front of her.

“Are comments like that one the norm with you?” His voice was huskier than what Aspen had anticipated, and it threw her off somewhat. He smirked down at her, wearing the same goggles and headphones as before, his blue hair winging out sideways over his right eye. It was an unusual look, but Aspen silently conceded that it seemed to work for him. He stood just as close to her as he had when she fell on him, though it felt less suffocating to Aspen this time. The white formal shirt he wore was unbuttoned slightly, exposing a section of bare, sinewy chest. She caught herself staring, and quickly looked away

“Only when I’m surrounded by fucking morons.”

Niji laughed again, louder than before, and turned to walk away. “Maybe this won’t be a boring diplomatic visit after all.”

As the siblings moved towards the end of the narrow hallway, Musette snuck over to Aspen’s side, grabbing her hand and squeezing it. “So far so good, right? I would stay if I could but they have me on laundry duty today.”

“I could order you to stay,” Aspen teased, forcing a smile for Musette’s benefit. So she really was to be all alone in this. “And speaking of laundry, is that a new uniform? That actually fits you? It must be a special occasion after all.”

Musette smiled shyly, slightly turning her head down to her shoulder. The typical staff uniform she wore - the grey, long-sleeved dress with the white half-apron - looked stunning on her. Gone was the usual black turtleneck she always wore beneath. Her uniform hugged her curves, accentuating her small waist while the circle skirt and crisp white apron hit just above her knees. The rounded white collar, as opposed to the normal pointed collar, was a nice touch. “Nexus said I needed new uniforms that fit me.”

“I feel like Stitch and Thread made it fit a little better than necessary. But I love it on you.”

“You and someone else, apparently…” Musette nervously looked towards the end of the hallway, where the brothers were waiting (Reiju, it seemed, had already left).

Aspen set a hand reassuringly on Musette’s shoulder. “If he touches you _at all_ , I will personally tear his balls off,” she whispered into Musette’s ear. “Maybe you can prepare them afterwards and we can feed them to Jack. It would be safe for him to eat, right?”

Niji began laughing again at something Aspen couldn’t hear.

With one last hand squeeze and a sympathetic look, Musette left, walking as quickly as she could past the brothers without looking at them or speaking. Just as Aspen suspected, Yonji trailed off after her, still gawking with an open mouth. She wished she could smack him.

When she finally began dragging herself to the end of the hallway, she could see that Ichiji looked extremely annoyed to have been kept waiting. Niji had wandered off, and the palace staff were apparently still making themselves scarce. They were within the hub, the busiest part of the entire palace, and yet _still_ Aspen was alone with him. Walking as slowly as she could, she took the opportunity to get a good look at him. Hers and Sofi’s original assessment was technically correct - he was physically attractive. Slender and tall, Aspen could make out some muscle through his clothes - and it was appealing in spite of herself. His cheekbones were high, his jawline defined and strong, and Aspen found that she didn’t particularly mind the ridiculousness that was his oddly styled, bright red hair.

“Are you done wasting time?” Ichiji asked coldly, giving her another disapproving look when she finally reached him. “You seem to be on awfully friendly terms with that _servant_.” An extra helping of contempt dripped from his last word.

What a shame all the attractiveness was wasted on a horrible human being. “Her name is _Musette_ ,” Aspen informed him, as rudely as she could with her nose held high. “She is a _staff member_ , not a _servant_. And you should know that she _is_ my friend.” She turned to leave, destined for the conservatory near the northern wing. If Sofi was there, she could help get rid of Ichiji. What a blessing that would be.

“Royals don’t keep company with the help.” His face pulled into a sneer as he followed Aspen, walking directly beside her. She didn’t want him beside her, or in front of her. She didn’t want him near her at all, but behind her would have been easier.

“I will not treat Musette like trash just because of her job.” Aspen pushed her hair over her ear and kept walking, giving him a dirty look. Nobody had told her that he was a moron. “Is that what you expect me to do?”

“I expect you to act like royalty.” Ichiji looked at her as though _she_ were the moron.

“I _am_ royalty.” Aspen wasn’t sure what she had expected their first conversation alone to be like, but this wasn’t what she had in mind. She could feel herself getting very irritated very quickly, and she _needed_ Sofi’s help in getting rid of him. “My actions are therefore, by default, that of _fucking royalty_.”

“You won’t be acting like this when you’re my wife,” he promised, clenching his jaw in an a way that seemed oddly familiar to Aspen.

His remark made her blood pressure spike, but she had no response.

Their footsteps echoed on the floor, louder than usual in an empty hub, and the few staff members that had emerged quickly ran to hide once again. Neither of them said anything else as Aspen led them up to the top of the hub and through the archway to the north. At the conservatory, she pressed her face against the glass and saw only darkness and lonely instruments. No Sofi in sight.

“Fucking _Sofi_ ,” Aspen grumbled, hands balling up into fists. Why had she believed for a second that Sofi had actually gone where Nexus had told her to go? The longer she was alone with Ichiji, the more the skin on the back of her neck prickled at his every glance. He hung behind her while she peered into each conservatory window, hoping to find Sofi asleep or goofing off within. When she finally gave up, he gave her another irritating smirk and followed her deeper into the northern wing.

It was so tempting to use her telekinesis to send his ass flying down the all away from her. Picturing Nexus’s reaction was all that kept it from happening. Aspen walked perhaps faster than she really needed to, stopping just short of running past the rows and rows of empty bedrooms. Ichiji kept up effortlessly, his strides longer than hers, his white cape trailing behind.

“Where are we going now?” He sounded bored. “They told you to show me the palace, not lead me on a wild goose chase for nothing.”

The temptation to fling him grew stronger still. “I’m looking for my friend you saw before - _not_ Musette,” she added, before he could make a nasty comment about Musette once more. “Sofi, the young duchess. She wasn’t in the conservatory so she must be down here.”

“What are all these other rooms?” Ichiji finally seemed to notice that they had passed quite a few closed-off bedrooms, and he seemed the slightest bit interested.

“Bedrooms, for members of my family. But I’m the only one left so they’re all empty except for mine.” She didn’t count the room Sofi was meant to stay in and never did.

He said nothing else, but his strides began to slow as he fell behind Aspen, leaving her free to grimace in peace. When they finally reached her bedroom door, she didn’t spare him a glance before walking in. “ _You_ wait here.”

Inside her bedroom, there was no Sofi. Not even Jack was hanging around. It did seem as though someone had come through at some point - all the laundry they’d left behind the day before was gone. The bed was made, her violin closed back in its case, and a coffee mug had been left on Sofi’s bedside table. Through the large windows on the opposite side of the room, Aspen could see snow whirling thickly, almost fully blocking all the lights from the capital.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake -”

“Quite a mouth on you.” Ichiji was in the doorway, leaning against the frame. He was smiling at her strangely, in a different way from his previous smirks.

“I told you to wait the fuck outside.” Aspen felt her unhappiness and unease beginning to intensify. No Sofi, anywhere. That meant dragging Ichiji through even more of the palace in pursuit of her. She massaged at her temples, wondering if this was how Nexus felt every day.

“I don’t think I will.”

His tone gave Aspen pause, and she felt unsettled from head to toe. How _stupid_ she had been, bringing him to her bedroom, even if it was to look for Sofi. “We’re done here.” Quickly, she turned back for the door, avoiding eye contact with Ichiji, who was now standing just inside her room. When she tried to move past him, he grabbed her by her wrist, and her stomach tightened.

“I don’t think we are.” He pulled her close to him again, and his other arm was tightly around her waist, as it had been earlier. Unlike earlier, she could feel a finger hooking on her leggings, pulling them open just wide enough for him to slip his hand inside. His hand was warm against her bare skin, panicking Aspen, who struggled to break away. He was bigger and stronger, but _so_ much bigger and stronger. “I think it’s time we had a talk about that mouth of yours.”

He pushed the door shut with his foot.

Aspen gave a nervous laugh as she desperately tried to figure out the quickest escape from him. This had never happened to her before. With her free hand, she tried to push on his chest, failing to force him away from her. The arm around her waist - with that hand openly groping her ass - held her solidly in place, and he let go of her wrist to run his hand along her jaw from ear to chin. He pressed his thumb against her bottom lip and traced its shape. Aspen was tempted to bite him, but felt completely frozen, unable to move or speak. 

“Why do you bother having a mouth this nice if you’re only going to use it to whine?” Ichiji moved his hand to squeeze on either side of her jaw, forcing her mouth open. His hand was bigger than her mouth as a whole, and Aspen tried to flinch away from his touch. She felt him squeeze her ass tighter as he stuck two of his fingers in her mouth.

Bewildered, heart beating faster, Aspen stood completely still as he pressed his fingers farther into her mouth, looking down at her with the same strange expression, his smile spreading wider. For what it was worth, his fingers weren’t overtly disgusting against her tongue, but they were unwelcome regardless. Unable to swallow properly, saliva began to dribble down his fingers, trickling to his wrist before dripping to the ground. 

Seeing the confusion in her eyes, he stayed smiling. “A _very_ nice mouth.”

Aspen did not move.

“Suck them.”

Hair on the back of her neck prickling further, Aspen did as he demanded, hoping his bizarre request would be the end of it. Nobody had asked her to do something like that before, not Stitch and not Sofi - not out of the blue, anyway. Sofi usually asked to have her fingers licked in very specific scenarios. She sucked his fingers slowly, keeping her eyes low.

“No, no.” He shoved them hard into the back of her throat, making her gag slightly. More spit forced its way out and down her chin. “Like a cock, sweetling.”

Aspen obliged again, closing her eyes and trying to remember how she had always done it for Stitch. Focusing, she continued sucking, varying the force of her suction, pressing her tongue over and around his fingers. She gently rocked her head back and forth, sliding his fingers in and out of her mouth, feeling more spit running down and landing on her shirt. He let her continue without shoving towards the back of her throat again. Standing as awkward as they were, Aspen knees were beginning to hurt, and she felt strain down the backs of her ankles.

Ichiji shifted his weight, squeezing Aspen tighter. She could feel something beginning to jab her in the belly, and she stopped sucking abruptly when she realized what it was.

In a single swift movement, he pulled his fingers out of Aspen’s mouth and used that same hand to shove straight down on her shoulder, forcing her to her knees. She fell awkwardly hard, almost falling sideways before he grabbed the back of her head with the hand that had been on her ass. Ichiji shoved Aspen’s head between his legs, and she felt a metal belt buckle scraping her forehead as her face pressed against him. Even through his pants, she could feel how warm he was, and she grasped his thighs to push herself away.

“ _No_ , sweetling.” His hand on the back of her head grabbed a fistful of hair, and he twisted it painfully. She could feel herself being jabbed in the cheek now. “I would’ve preferred this while you were still dressed as you were earlier...but I can work with this.”

Wet fingers brushed against her neck as he grabbed the collar of her top and ripped it down. The soft fabric tore away easily, and Aspen felt cold air on her skin as she was left in leggings and the black lace bralette Sofi had picked out for her earlier. Again, Aspen tried to push away from him, hoping for someone - Sofi, Musette, _anyone_ \- to interrupt. But they were all alone in the northern wing, and nobody was coming.

“That’s much better.” Ichiji sounded very pleased, and there was throbbing against Aspen’s face. She tried to turn her head away, her heartbeat frantic, and he held her tight. He gave the strap on her left shoulder a small nudge and it fell away easily, the bralette going lopsided as one of her tits and fully hard nipple came into view. “I was almost disappointed you didn’t have tits as big as either of your friends but these are quite cute.”

“You don’t have to do this.” Aspen heard herself speaking, but the panic in her voice was alien and unfamiliar to her. “We could just go back downstairs.”

“We can,” he agreed, gently circling a thumb around her nipple and sending shivers through her body. She hated the feeling. “But I _want_ to do this.”

Aspen swallowed, hard. 

“And the sooner you get started, the sooner we can go back downstairs, as you just suggested.” The gentle circling turned into a pinch, and Aspen gasped. “So, sweetling…”

Aspen could feel her heart pounding in her ears then, feeling oddly like she was underwater. If that was the price she had to pay to get away from him...then that was how it was going to be. After all, she had done it with Stitch a couple of times, and she hadn’t found that to be terrible at all. Reluctantly, and brimming with loathing for him, Aspen reached for his belt buckle, slowly rubbing him through his pants with the other hand. She undid the buckle easily, and unzipped his pants.

“Good decision. You’re a smart girl after all.”

His cock was bigger than Stitch’s had been. Aspen had not considered that possibility. She couldn’t get her hand all the way around it, at any point in its length. It seemed the finger sucking had served a purpose after all, in a way Aspen realized she had been stupid not to consider - he was harder than she had felt before, and already beginning to leak from the tip.

“I didn’t have you take it out just to stare at it.”

Aspen was half-tempted to bite him, but knew it would be ugly if she did. Trying to subdue the urge to vomit, she kissed from base to tip, getting a bit of the slippery fluid on her lips and licking it off. He didn’t taste too terribly different from Stitch. Closing her eyes tightly, she slid her mouth over the head, slowly sliding as much of him in her mouth as she could. Not scraping her teeth against him was a struggle, and Aspen gripped hard at her own thighs with frustration, wishing again to throw him out, put him through the wall, anything. The feeling of arousal welling up inside her, despite everything, was _infuriating_.

Ichiji gripped the back of her head with both hands and thrust deep into her mouth, over her tongue and straight down her throat. Aspen, suddenly unable to breathe, released her own thighs and grabbed at his, clawing at him through his pants. Just as quickly as he had thrust in, he slid back to where she had him before, and Aspen panted around his cock, her throat burning. She dropped her hands from his thighs back down to hers, pinning them in between.

Luckily for Aspen, he did not try it again as she continued bobbing her head back and forth, getting sloppier and sloppier the longer it dragged on. Concentrating hard to keep from throwing up, she worked all of him into her mouth, her wet, sucking sounds echoing through the empty room. Aspen found herself humming softly, noting that he gripped tightly at her scalp whenever she did. Finding a steady rhythm, as she had with Stitch, Aspen kept her eyes closed, breathing hard through her nose. Reaching up a hand to gently fondle his balls, Aspen slid him almost entirely out of her mouth as she kept her lips around the head, sliding the flat of her tongue all around it like an open-mouthed kiss.

“Oh _fuck_ ,” he let go of the back of her head, grabbing her face the way he had when he first forced her mouth open. Aspen, eyes still closed, let her jaw drop open as Ichiji pulled out completely. She could hear him jerking himself off then, the wet noises unmistakable. “Keep your mouth open.”

It was almost over. There was light at the end of the tunnel after all. Aspen was proud of herself, spit dribbling all over her chin, her shirt ripped open with her tits out. She hadn’t killed Ichiji, no matter how badly she wanted to. Nexus would be proud of her restraint - but she would never breathe a word of this to Nexus. Ever. Or Sofi, for that matter, both out of shame for it having happened, and shame for feeling as turned on as she did - even despising him as she did. Nobody would know.

When she heard him beginning to groan, she opened her mouth wider, eyes still closed as they had been. She caught the first three spurts in her mouth, on her tongue, and she wrinkled her nose slightly at how bitter it was. Another hit her in the chin, and what was left landed harmlessly on her tits. Aspen swallowed quietly, running her finger along her chin to catch what had missed, and licking that off as well.

“Well done sweetling.” Aspen opened her eyes and gazed up at him, pressing her mouth into a line and feeling the aching throbbing of her jaw. His tone was _almost_ affectionate, but he was leering at her just the same as he had from the start. “ _Well done_. That was pretty spirited for someone who looks at me with this much hate.”

Immediately, Aspen regretted having not bitten him. Ichiji extended a hand to Aspen and she accepted it, carefully rising to her feet, her knees stiff and uncomfortable. She tried to pull away and again, she found herself pressed to him, her exposed sections of bare skin rubbed roughly by the fabric of his clothes.

“Something that good deserves an encore.” Aspen could feel twitching against her, and her mouth twisted into a grimace. He forced his hand down her leggings, and shoved it between her legs before she could grab his arm - not that she was anywhere near strong enough to stop him. Fingers pressed against her, over her underwear, and Aspen’s hand itched to slap him. “It feels like you enjoyed it as well, unless I’m missing something.”

Aspen said nothing, shame burning on every nerve. He pulled her underwear to the side before easily shoving a finger into her. She gasped, stumbling backwards and falling hard onto the floor.

He didn’t move, studying Aspen with the one eye not covered by his red hair. Even though he had just came minutes ago, he was hardening quickly. “It’s your decision. Another round, or I rip those leggings off of you and we try something...completely different.”

“No!” Aspen spat, blood pressure rising and her ire spiking sky-high. “I’m not your _plaything_. I’m the princess and I _will not_ -”

“You do it, or one of your friends will.” Ichiji’s voice was cold, and his words struck Aspen like bullets.

“You - you wouldn’t,” Aspen countered, feeling suffocated even in the wide open space of her own room. It was supposed to be safe, here, _Sofi_ was supposed to be here. But there was no Sofi, only Ichiji, and Aspen could not think of a single man she both desired and wanted to strangle more. The first point was shameful to admit, even internally. _“He’s a monster. All he is, is monstrous. What’s wrong with me?”_

“I would.” He bent over, grabbing Aspen by her wrist once again and setting her on her feet. “In fact, let’s make a deal, _princess_ \- you play the part of the perfect fiancee, in public and in private. I’ll be your knight in shining armor and you pile on the adoration and affection for everyone to see.”

The mockery in his voice was heavy, and it repulsed Aspen. “Why would I _ever_ agree to something like that? With someone like you?”

“Because if you do not, I have no problem forcing someone else to take your place in these closed door activities.” Ichiji’s mocking smile grew wider. “Do you think your little duchess friend sucks cock half as well as you do?”

“Do NOT touch Sofi.” Anxiety needled Aspen at every pore, and she tried to pull away from him in horror. “Don’t touch Sofi _or_ Musette.”

“Do we have a deal?” Ichiji seemed to be enjoying tormenting Aspen even more than he had enjoyed her blowing him. “Kiss on it, Princess Aspen.”

 _“I could throw him through the windows,”_ Aspen thought, staring at his smile. At his eyes, as she reached up and pushed the hair out of his face. Such a lovely shade of blue, and all cruelty. _“I could act like I don’t even know how it happened. Apologize to him profusely for the accident, in front of his father and the council. It would be easy.”_

The bookshelves opposite them began to vibrate slightly. She could do it, it would take almost effort at all. But doing it would mean retribution against her, towards Sofi and Musette. And Aspen could not do that to them. _“It’s only six months,”_ she reminded herself, craning her head back to kiss him on the lips, feeling no emotion but hatred for him. He grasped her face against his, kissing her hard, and Aspen waited a sufficient amount of time before pulling away. Sucking his cock had been easier to bear. _“It’s only six months.”_

Ichiji seemed to know precisely what she was thinking, and spoke again. “Off to a great start, sweetling. It’s only for the rest of our lives.”


	12. MUSETTE III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- I don't know why some of my chapters keep the indents when I copy/paste it over and some of them don't  
> \- Mariejois or Marie Geoise? I went with the one that didn't sound as dumb

On the whole, Musette was finding that her life was easier with so many of the palace staff out of the way. Even considering her rough morning, things weren’t going so bad - her mother was still gone, she hadn’t run into Scallion, and she finally had a new uniform that looked pretty good on her. Musette even found herself humming while she worked, sorting through a load of towels that were waiting in a dryer in the laundry room. The rumbling of the wall of washers and dryers was almost soothing, comforting even. If this is what life was like with the Vinsmoke family visiting - and scared staffers fleeing the palace from them - Musette didn’t care if they stayed forever.

“MUSETTE!”

Musette, lost in her humming and deep in a stack of fluffy towels, jumped at having her name shouted at her from the laundry room doorway. Her perfectly-folded stack crash landed on the porcelain tile. She gave a withering look to Sofi, who was peeking into the laundry room with a grin on her face.

“Why are you always folding towels?”

“Why are you always obnoxious?” Musette mumbled, getting on her knees to pick up the towels that now needed to be refolded. She gathered them in one big armful and heaped them onto the table where she had been working for the past hour. “And I’m _not_. Earlier I was going around collecting laundry from the bedrooms and apartments.”

Sofi had gotten dressed since Musette had last seen her, and was now wearing blue leggings with a pink sweater, her curls pushed back with a yellow headband that accentuated the gold tone of her skin. She hopped up onto another one of the laundry tables opposite Musette and sat cross-legged. “I thought you’d be in the kitchen, doing chef training or whatever it is they have you doing now.”

“Not today.” Musette didn’t bother to tell Sofi that she _had_ , in fact, stopped by the kitchens, only for some of the staffers to get...aggressive with her. Scallion was missing. Most of them, fully aware of what he enjoyed doing to Musette, suspected (rightly) that she played a part in his disappearance. It had been a short encounter, but it had been ugly. “I think I might follow your advice and just stick to towels. Maybe I’ll get real wild and go collect even more laundry.”

Sofi leaned back against the exposed brick wall, flashing a knowing smile. “And to go collect all that laundry, you use the staff passages. And then you come back here - also through another staff passages. All of which you need a key card to access.” The staff passages were, on the whole, wider to accommodate their carts and free of stairs, usually following gentle slopes either up or down. There were four major ones, connecting each of the palace wings to each other, but there were several smaller ones on and off.

Musette gave Sofi another dirty look over her new stack of towels. “Yes, you do need a key card to get in here. And yet...here you are.”

“Oh, _please_.” Sofi rolled her eyes. “If it was _me_ you were trying to hide from, you’d just tell me to fuck off. You’re hiding from someone you _can’t_ just tell to fuck off.”

Glowering, Musette set her towels onto an automated cart beside the table. She pressed a few buttons on the side panel and it rolled away on its own, across the floor and out the door, beeping periodically.

Sofi leaned forward from her seat on the table, grinning teasingly at Musette. “It’s Prince Yonji, isn’t it?”

“No,” Musette answered, her face burning hot.

“I really need to teach you and Aspen how to lie properly. I’ve never seen two people so bad at it before.” All the same, Sofi clasped her hands together excitedly. “I saw the way he looked at you earlier.”

“Everyone did,” Musette grumbled, cleaning the discarded dryer sheets and lint balls off her table, face still glowing with embarrassment. He had been so...not subtle about it. Still, she had never had a guy seem so in awe of just her appearance before - and it felt kind of good. Not to mention the fact he was handsome - or at least Musette thought so.. “He does it every time I run into him. And it’s happened so much already just this afternoon.”

Sofi snorted. “Yeah, I’m sure it’s all by accident, him stumbling into you. Does it make you feel weird, the way he keeps checking you out? He seems like the relatively least awful of all of them, outside from the princess.”

“Nah, it doesn’t really _bother_ me, I just don’t want to get caught staring back,” Musette answered before she could stop herself, thinking back to how big his arms had been. She couldn’t recall having seen someone else similarly strong before.

Open-mouthed, Sofi gawked at her, brown eyes so wide that Musette could see white surrounding her irises. Musette, realizing what she had just blurted out and to whom, clasped her hands over her mouth. Cursing herself silently for having said so much to the exact wrong person, Musette quickly left the laundry room, dashing past Sofi.

Sofi came charging out down the hallway after Musette, and caught up to her in a matter of seconds. The staff hallway, unlike other staff passages in the palace, was abnormally narrow, and made of dusty plaster. Musette didn’t have a lot of wiggle room to evade Sofi for long. “Oh, so you’re telling me you’re _interested.”_

“Like it matters,” Musette snapped, pulling her key card out as they approached two sealed doors, which then slid open to reveal a longer hallway, still narrow and brick. “I’m a staff member. He’s a prince. And on that specific note, Nexus has told _both of us_ to avoid the princes to the best of our abilities and I intend to follow his orders.”

“Oh, did he? I don’t remember that.” Sofi waved it off as she followed Musette through a fork in the hallway, with one path leading towards the kitchens. A few staffers headed that way caught a glimpse of Musette with Sofi and they quickly began whispering to each other behind raised hands. She watched as they disappeared behind swinging doors. “Besides, if that were the case, he wouldn’t have let Prince Ichiji be alone with Aspen.”

“You weren’t there, Sofi,” Musette protested, trying not to think about the staffers they had passed. “You didn’t see his face. He was seriously not okay with it.” Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen Aspen or the red-haired prince since she had left them that morning. She hoped it was possibly going well. “Anyway, forget I said anything. Drop it.”

Sofi rolled her eyes again.

As they turned the corner, the hallway began to widen again, and Musette spotted a woman in a cream and brown striped dress, engrossed in a clipboard, heading their way. Her pen was scribbling back and forth on its surface. “No pirates permitted to visit the kingdom for the duration of Germa’s stay...food to be prepared based off the pre-supplied menus provided by the council…”

Musette gave her a small, polite nod as she passed. “Hello, Mocha.”

“Ah! Musette. How fortunate to see you.” Mocha stopped in her tracks and began flipping through several pages of her clipboard, squinting through her large glasses. “Could you please tell me what your normal duties are, during the week? I don’t need times.”

Sofi frowned at Mocha. “You’re one of the staff supervisors, isn’t it _your_ job to know that?”

“Laundry, household cleaning, and kitchen duty as needed,” Musette recited, remembering the schedule she had been given at the beginning of the month. “I’m usually put on laundry duty for the most part, during the week.”

“Excellent, thank you.” Mocha, ignoring Sofi, jotted everything down. “I will find someone to cover those duties for you.”

Musette blinked. “Pardon?”

“We received a request from Prince Yonji that you be appointed to his personal staff team while he is staying here. Ah - not by name of course,” Mocha lifted her head from her clipboard, frowning slightly at a shocked Musette and Sofi. “He...uh...gave an _extremely_ detailed physical description of who he was asking for.”

Sofi laughed loudly.

“Espresso and I knew it had to be you.”

“What?” Musette asked, voice coming out oddly higher than she had heard it in recent memory. It felt like even her ears were burning red, and she felt her pulse quicken. “I assume I cannot refuse the assignment.”

Sofi jabbed a sharp elbow into Musette’s ribs

“No. The council has made it very clear that we are to accommodate our guests whenever possible. This is a relatively easy request - I assume he will either designate you to laundry duty, or household cleaning duty. He has been assigned a personal assistant who will probably do that for him. Once Princess Aspen signs off on the request, you will be assigned a room near Prince Yonji in the eastern wing, with the rest of his staff. Just introduce yourself to the prince, at that point, as I assume he still does not know your name, and settle in.”

“But -” Musette started to protest.

Absorbed in her clipboard once again, Mocha ignored Musette and kept walking, flipping through forms and mumbling to herself. Musette would’ve made a snide comment under her breath, but she couldn’t think of one on the spot. She was also trying very hard not to die.

Sofi looked entirely too excited, bouncing in place with her curls springing up and down. “This is great!”

“It is NOT.” Musette was sure her complexion would just stay red forever, clashing horribly with her golden hair. She knew nothing about the prince, outside of his obvious enjoyment of her figure and the rumors she had caught bits and pieces of in the last few hours. That he and his brothers could kill effortlessly, and felt nothing over it. That they had destroyed entire kingdoms, armies, fleets - all in the blink of an eye. Not caring about them or what they did had been all well and good when Musette could blend into the background with the rest of the staff, serving silently, not standing out. It was much less well and good to have been personally hand-picked by Prince Yonji to be at his beck and call for the next six months.

After a moment, Sofi’s enthusiasm dulled, and her smile thinned into a line. “There’s a very real chance that Aspen will refuse the request.”

Frustratingly, Musette didn’t want that either. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Let’s...talk somewhere less public.” Sofi glanced around. Even though the hall had widened slightly, it was still a narrow space where any staff member could just come right through at any moment. “Aspen’s room?”

Musette shook her head, pressing on. “She probably still has Prince Ichiji with her. What if they show up and hears us talking?”

“First off, Aspen isn’t dumb enough to bring to her _bedroom_.” Sofi was practically stepping on Musette’s heels as they approached a door leading back to the palace hub. “Your apartment then? Since your mom is gone? I know you’re working but I doubt anyone will notice if you disappear for like, half an hour.”

Musette smiled again, just remembering that Sofi was right and her mother was gone. “Yeah, you’re right, that’s not a bad idea.” She swiped her card and passed through the door first, unable to help but feel good that now, with Scallion missing and her mother gone, she was _free_. “We could -”

“Hey!” Musette heard someone call through the emptiness of the hub. She wheeled around and saw Prince Yonji striding right towards her, looking slightly more composed than he had been before, red cape trailing behind him.

Musette looked left, and then right. There was nobody else there. She slammed the door shut before turning her attention to Prince Yonji, trapping Sofi in the staff passage. The last thing she needed was an overexcited Sofi blurting out something stupid. Musette leaned her full weight into the door and hoped it would hold.

“Yes, my lord?” Musette tried to avoid making eye contact. He was easily the tallest and brawniest of his brothers, standing a head taller than the other two. Standing before him, Musette found she had to tilt her head pretty far back to appear to be looking at him. Unwilling to make eye contact, she chose instead to lower her head again and focus on his skull-shaped belt buckle. It looked to be larger than her hand. “Is there something I can -”

“I could use your assistance.” Musette could feel his gaze directly on her. “But only because I’m not familiar with this palace or its facilities yet.”

Musette could feel Sofi banging against the door. She leaned even harder against it to keep her from exploding out. “Of course, my lord. Your personal staff are all very knowledgeable, perhaps they could -”

“Staff? Oh yeah,” he answered lightly. “I dismissed them. Outside of the laundress, and the dude who cleans my room. I think.”

“You did _what_?” Musette felt her professional mask slip as she jerked her head up to stare at Yonji, who seemed very smug. “You had a team of _twenty_ staffers, assigned to you and only you for the next six months. Including a personal assistant! Are you stupid?”

The last sentence flew out of her mouth before she could stop it. Yonji’s smirk disappeared in an instant. “What did you just say to me?” His voice had noticeable sharpness to it, and his blue eyes narrowed down at Musette, who had completely frozen.

“I, I….nothing, my lord,” Musette tried to recover quickly and gloss over her mistake. “You said you’ve dismissed your staff?”

Yonji seemed to go along with it, but he continued to observe Musette with suspicion. “I did. I want a tour of the palace.”

Musette relaxed slightly. That wasn’t so bad, and it meant she could pass him off to a member of senior staff who was actually qualified to give tours. Musette, even after years of living in the palace, didn’t know it well enough to be a guide. “I’m sure I can find someone -”

“I want a tour of the palace from _you.”_

Of course he did. Musette should have anticipated as much. She could no longer feel Sofi pounding and shoving at the door. “Very good, my lord. I am always happy to help.”

He continued staring down at her. _“Now.”_

“Yes.” Musette thought for a moment, trying to think of literally anywhere to start. If he wanted her to guide him, she had no choice - Mocha had stressed to accommodate the guests as much as possible, after all. “There’s….uh...plenty to start with here, in the central palace hub, if that’s okay. If you’ll follow me…”

As she passed by Yonji, he reached a hand out and twisted a lock of her long hair around his finger for the briefest moment. She kept walking, pretending she had not noticed, and he let it slip back into place. The sensation sent an odd shiver down her spine.

“Snøvanger Palace has four primary wings in every cardinal direction,” Musette explained, trying to pretend as though he were any other visitor, leading Yonji through the bottom floor of the hub. On a normal day, they would’ve been cutting through a sea of staff members, but it was completely empty. “Here, where they all meet, is the heart of the palace that is commonly referred to as the palace hub.” She paused as she led him to the exact center, where the ceiling and the ceiling of every floor above had been cut away to make room for the giant chandelier at the very top. “You can see all the way to the roof skylight from here. This chandelier was made of crystal mined in Hoarfrost.”

Musette stole a brief glance over her shoulder at Yonji, who was still watching her and not even looking where she was gesturing. He had his arms folded, and the short sleeves of his shirt gave Musette a perfect view of the thick muscle in his forearms and biceps. She had definitely never seen someone built like that before. “Um. There. Ah. More on this….floor…” Musette turned looked back to the chandelier to hide her face, which she could feel heating up again. “Just...uh…”

“Just tell me what there is,” he interrupted. “And I’ll tell you if I care about going and checking it out.”

“Very good, my lord. Okay.” Musette knew there was no point in mentioning the kitchens or the laundry room. “There’s a ballroom where tonight’s welcome reception will be, I think.”

Yonji snorted. “Then I’m already going to see it later.”

“Of course, my lord. There’s...an armory. Maybe. Or is that part of the southern wing?” Musette wasn’t sure, and she was begin to panic slightly, not knowing what would be appealing to a prince. She doubted very much that he’d be interested in the gardens or greenhouses. “I also believe there is a spa, or some kind of recreational center along those lines. I have personally never used it…”

He perked up immediately. “Yes, that one. That sounds good.”

Musette could have assumed as much from the second she said it. “Excellent choice, my lord. This way, please...I think.”

It was a bit of a struggle for Musette to find it, with the added frustration of literally no one else around to ask. She led Yonji away from the bright, glitteringly decorated center of the hub towards the direction of the southern wing. She could see small, short hallways branching off towards offices, storage rooms, and the armory she had mentioned before. But she could not find the recreation hall. “I believe it’s here...it would _have_ to be on the ground level...ah, here.”

Down one of the small hallways, she could see a set of airtight double doors, their borders carved into swirls of water. A small plaque to the side noted the entrance to the palace ‘rejuvenation center,’ which was the stupidest name Musette could’ve thought to call it. She hurried down the hallway and pulled one of the doors open, and was hit in the face with hot, muggy air. “After you, my lord.”

“You have a _pool?_ ” Yonji finally sounded impressed, passing Musette into the recreation hall. She followed a safe distance behind him, more interested in _him_ than the part of the palace she’d never been in before. His shoulders were massive and wide, and Musette wondered what they felt like. The cape kept her from being able to see much else, but she could certainly imagine.

“Apparently, yes. We have a pool.” A massive pool, it seemed. The hall as a whole took up a space like two of Musette’s apartment pushed together, with a giant, kidney shaped pool dead center. It was filled with water a sparkling shade of blue, and Musette could see small colored lights set into its underwater walls. On the farthest end of the room were a few hot tubs, also set into the floor, and access to a sauna. The walls, floor, and ceiling were a mosaic tile in shades of blue and green, and no windows anywhere. It all smelled of fresh citrus. 

Musette had never been allowed in the pool by her mother, or in a swimsuit at all. She had certainly never been allowed in the hot tub or sauna - even though the space was free to use for any staff off the clock. “I...don’t really know anything about this room, beyond what we can see,” she admitted, bowing her head in apology. 

“I want to use the sauna,” Yonji announced, walking past the pool. Musette followed.

“You certainly can if you want, my lord,” she answered, perhaps a little too eagerly. She knew next to nothing about saunas, other than people tended to use them either in just a towel or naked. If he wanted to do that, that was more than fine by her. He glanced over his shoulder at her with a look she couldn’t quite decipher.

Right outside the sauna was a small bench, and two dressing rooms curtained off from view. Musette took a quick look in both of them. “There are towels on the shelves for your use, my lord.”

“Good.” He walked into one of the dressing rooms and pulled the curtain shut tight behind. Musette sat down on the bench, looking over at the pool, and tried to collect her bearings. So far, Sofi was right - Yonji seemed manageable, if on the rude side. Perhaps Nexus had been a bit too worried with his warnings to keep away. And again, he was awfully easy on the eyes, at least for Musette. She had seen nothing that warranted the terrified, loathing reactions from the rest of the staff. Maybe his siblings were worse. 

Either way, they were only here for diplomatic reasons, not to attack, Musette reminded herself. Musette had dealt with far more intimidating, cruel men. Her main concern at this juncture was to not get caught blatantly staring at the prince.

Musette’s self control was put to the test the moment Yonji walked back out in nothing but a towel. His arms and shoulders had been just the precipice, it seemed - there wasn’t a single inch of his body that she could see that wasn’t roped in muscle. Musette very slowly raked her eyes from his chest to his abs, stopping right where the towel hit - and feeling slightly sad he hadn’t wrapped it further down. His thighs were so thick, the towel _almost_ didn’t wrap fully around.

When he saw Musette sitting politely on the bench, his mouth twisted into a disapproving frown. “Why are you just sitting there like that?”

Musette, who had still been eyeing his thighs, snapped back to attention. “My lord?”

“What, you thought my intent was to use it _alone?”_ His voice had a bit of a sneer to it. “I didn’t think I had to tell you explicitly that I expected you to accompany me.”

Face reddening all over again, Musette stammered, “It would be _extremely_ unprofessional of me to -”

“ _I_ put in a request that you be added to my personal staff. That means _I_ decide what’s ‘unprofessional’ or not.” He dropped onto the bench beside her, his force shaking it hard enough that Musette nearly toppled off. “Go get changed and do _not_ waste time.”

Musette practically ran into the other dressing room, holding the curtain shut, in a full blown panic. Mocha had said to accommodate, but this seemed out of bounds - what choice did Musette have? She undid the buttons on her dress, pulling it off and folding it into one of the cubby holes set into the wall. Her bra and underwear - the dark emerald set gifted to her by Aspen, and one of the only bras that still fit - went next. She left her shoes paired together on the floor, pushed against the wall. Taking an elastic from around her wrist, she quickly tied all her hair into a messy top knot on her head.

The towels were a _disaster_. They were the standard palace towels, of course, all fluffy and thick - but every single one of them was too small. It became a struggle to decide what Musette wished to cover more: her ass, or her tits. If she covered her chest in a way that didn’t feel tawdry, the bottom half of her ass hung out. If he ass was hidden fully behind the towel, then her nipples were dangerously close to slipping fully out. Her panic began to grow. Was it weird to use two towels? Did people do that?

“Hurry up!” Musette heard Yonji call to her, sounding more annoyed than before.

Agonizing for a few seconds more on how to best cover herself, Musette decided to keep her bottom half modest and just fold her arms over her chest in a bid for decency. She hurried back out, using her arms to pin her towel as closely as she could to her body. The tile - evidently heated - felt nice on her sore feet as she gave silent thanks for having showered the night before. “I’m coming, my lord, I’m not trying to make you wait.”

Yonji’s unhappy scowl immediately morphed back into the wide-eyed delight at the sight of Musette in just a towel. He stood back up, swiftly turning away and opening the door to the sauna, disappearing inside. Musette held her towel even tighter, keeping her arms folded over nipples that were already trying to pop out, and followed him in.

The sauna itself was like a solid wall of wet heat, and Musette could feel sweat prickling all over her body from the moment she walked in. As expected, nobody was inside, with all the benches bare and the rocks untouched. Yonji sat down on a bench midway between the rocks and the back wall.

Musette sat down on the end of the bench closest to the door.

“I didn’t come here to sit alone.”

Musette got up and sat closer to him, feeling her heart beating up in her throat. This was almost certainly more than just ‘accommodating.’ Several members of staff were already whispering behind her back. If someone were to catch her with the prince, like this…

“You’re not from here.”

Surprised, she glanced at Yonji, who was looking down at her. He seemed to be studying her face, which she felt was at peak unattractiveness - red and sweaty. Musette knew the redness wasn’t just from the heat. “No, my lord.”

He tilted his head slightly, studying her. Musette couldn’t stand the thought of maintaining eye contact, and settled on looking slightly to the right of him. “Where are you from?”

“Not the North Blue.” Musette wished she had stayed in the laundry room. She could not think of a topic of conversation she liked less. “My lord, how long were you wanting to -”

“Where are you from?” Yonji repeated, frowning again, clearly unhappy with her answer. He folded his arms back over his chest again, and Musette’s eyes were immediately drawn downward to where he had let go of the towel. She could see a strip of bare skin running uninterrupted from his hip down his thigh - and and it looked enticing.

“Mariejois.” Musette hated saying the name, she hated thinking of the place, she hated everything about her answer. She had left with her mother when she was seven years old, and had not looked back. “I was born there.”

That answer, blessedly, seemed to satisfy Yonji, who nodded and went right back to ogling Musette’s chest, right where the towel strained the most. Unable to complain, as she was staring right back at him, Musette wondered if she would get an opportunity at some point to see what was under the towel. As improper as that would be. Thinking of that was better than thinking of her time in Mariejois.

“Go pour water on the rocks,” he demanded after several minutes of sitting in silence. He had a new strange look on his face and a smirk on his lips - Musette was pretty sure he was hoping to get a peek at one end or the other on her when she got up to do that. Unwilling to let such a thing happen, she tucked her towel extra tightly into itself as she stood back up, grabbing the water bucket off a different bench.

“How….do I…” Musette mumbled to herself, looking from the bucket and ladle to the rocks, not hearing Yonji getting up behind her. _“Do I pour the whole thing on? Do I only ladle on some of it? Why are there no directions written anywhere -”_

She felt a sudden, hard pinch on her ass - her _bare ass_ \- as Yonji reached beneath and slid a hand under her towel. Blinded with fury, Musette spun around and sprayed him with the full contents of the water bucket, the ladle bouncing off his head. She threw the empty bucket onto the floor as hard as she could and lunged at Yonji, surprising him, and grabbing him by his biceps and pinning them to his sides.

“Do NOT,” Musette shouted, her face mere inches from his, holding his arms tightly. “EVER touch me like that AGAIN.”

Yonji gawked, open-mouthed, his blue eyes completely wide in shock - bewildered at Musette’s explosive and immediate reaction. He looked from her raging eyes, down to where her nails were digging into his skin, and back again. Musette, terrified as she realized just how far over the line she’d crossed, froze, unable to move. After a moment, he reached and gently pulled her hands off of him.

“I think I want to get something to eat now, Musette.” Holding his towel on, he got up and walked out of the sauna. Wracked with anxiety all over again, Musette silently followed and got dressed again, certain that he would leave her behind to report her and she would be _so fired_ \- but no. Yonji waited on the bench for her as he had before, and followed her back to the dining room from earlier without speaking.

It wasn’t until after she had left him seated, food request in hand for the kitchens, that she realized he had called her by the name she’d never told him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Musette's lack of knowledge about saunas is literally my own


	13. SOFI III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- this chapter is pretty straightforward tbh

“Musette traps me in a staff passage,” Sofi grumbled to herself as she made her way through the hub, finally headed to the conservatory when Nexus had told her to go earlier. “Aspen disappears with that red-haired jackoff...she better be MIA because she’s looking for a place to bury the body.”

The hub was empty on every floor Sofi stopped at, and it was infuriating. She hated being alone with nobody to talk to. It was almost as bad as being back in Åker, except there was no irritating little sister hanging off her here. Sofi could not abide Saki.

Hearing some kind of hustle and bustle from the ground level, Sofi excitedly ran to the top floor railing to look down. She was hoping to spot Aspen, Musette, or hell, even _Nexus_ \- but was disappointed to see only a handful of staff accompanied by automated carts loaded with champagne glasses, fancy servingware, and tablecloths. All of them were headed towards the grand ballroom on the southern end.

“Ah,” Sofi muttered, resting his chin in her hand as she watched them work. She had almost forgotten about the stupid reception. In about an hour, the guests would probably start arriving and everyone in the palace would be in attendance - everyone in the palace that _Sofi_ cared about at least. Not that it mattered - Aspen was sure to have to sit with Prince Ichiji, and she was bound to be _such a peach_ when she found out.

Sighing, Sofi turned away, and proceeded to trip directly into someone who had been passing close behind. She hadn’t even heard him behind her. 

“Watch where you’re fucking going!” Sofi spat nastily, catching herself before falling onto the floor. 

“Is that all the girls in this palace know how to say?” The stranger observed her with a glare, eyes hidden behind thick goggles and (on at least one side of his face) a sideways sweep of bright blue hair. “I expected better treatment as a guest.”

Sofi was in no way cowed by the tall prince looking at her all grumpy with his arms crossed. “You’re free to roam around the palace. Not a lot of people get to do that. You could try being grateful.”

The prince’s jaw went stiff, and she watched him grind his teeth together. “You don’t get get to talk to me like -”

“Why are _you_ even up here?” Sofi had been hoping to run into Aspen, not Prince Goggles and his pissy attitude. “There’s nothing over here except the top floor entrance to the northern wing. And I assume you’re not interested in the conservatory.”

He continued to huff in offense. “That’s none of your fucking business.”

Ah, so he was Aspen levels of cranky. That was fun. “I don’t give a fuck what you do or do not do up here. I just asked a damn question.” Sofi tried to restrain the snark she was longing to rub his stupid face in.

Still bristling at her familiar tone, Goggles managed to spit out an answer. “I wanted to see how high it was from here to the ground level. If it were a jump someone could emerge from unscathed. If you _must_ know.”

Sofi nodded slowly, narrowing her eyes in confusion. It seemed this prince was about as sharp as a bag of marbles. “It’s a really, really, _really_ high fall,” Sofi explained slowly, to make sure he could keep up. “You’d have to be stupid or suicidal to jump from here.”

Not completely oblivious to Sofi treating him as an invalid, Goggles’s face went deep red, clashing oddly with his blue hair. He started grumbling again. Tired of wasting time, Sofi breezed past him into the northern wing, leaving him cursing behind her. She wasn’t interested in going to the conservancy after all - she would wait for Aspen in her bedroom.

Passing the conservancy, Sofi noticed someone else headed right towards her. She perked up briefly, only to deflate when she noticed the red hair. It was only Ichiji.

“Where’s Aspen?” Sofi demanded as he got closer, looking all irritatingly smug with his stupid cape and head held high. Hadn’t Aspen been with him, according to Musette? She’d said Aspen had been left alone with him. But now he was all by himself, not even bothering to look at Sofi as he passed right by her.

Right as he passed, he decided to answer her. “She’s in her room.” He kept walking, cape trailing behind him, not sparing a glance at Sofi. She contemplated stepping on his cape but decided against it, instead continuing down the hall towards Aspen’s room. Knowing that Aspen was finally free from him hanging around was a big plus, and she whistled cheerfully.

She threw open the bedroom door the moment she grasped the knob. “You’ve managed to survive the first few hours of a six month visit from the Vinsmoke family of Germa, so tell me - how does it feel?”

Aspen was sitting on the foot of her bed, blanket pulled around her shoulders as her legs dangled down, still in leggings and cozy socks. She looked like hell - the mascara and eyeliner Sofi had helped applied that morning was raccooned around her eyes, and her hair had managed to snarl itself into an even bigger tangled mess than usual. Aspen had been staring vacantly towards the windows, but slowly turned to Sofi when she heard her. “What?”

Looking at Aspen made Sofi’s stomach feel queasy. “Are...did you just wake up?”

“Yes.” Aspen hopped off the bed, still holding the blanket around her. She stumbled slightly, like she did after a nap, but did not fall like she normally did. She turned away from Sofi, rubbing absently at her jaw.

“So you just...took a nap with Ichiji, is that what you’re telling me?”

Aspen sat down at her makeup table and pulled a brush out of a drawer. She began yanking it angrily through her hair. “Sure.”

Sofi tried to suppress the irritation she was beginning to feel. That was awfully shitty of Aspen to bring that fuckhead into the bed _they_ shared together. Ichiji didn’t belong there, or in Aspen’s room at all. “The reception is soon.”

“Great.” Aspen kept brushing. Sofi could hear a decent amount of her hair ripping right out of her scalp, and the sound was making her cringe. After a few moments of further ripping and tearing, she set the brush down, all choked with long black hairs. Aspen lowered the blanket just enough to seize the bottom of her shirt and pull it off and over her head, wadding it into a ball and throwing it onto the floor.

Swallowing her anger, Sofi grabbed the two garment bags that had been hanging, neglected, on the back of the door. A silver ribbon, stamped with the mark from Stitch and Thread, was tied around the hooks. “I think these are our dresses. Do you want to see?”

Aspen didn’t answer as she sprayed her face with a tiny glass spray bottle from her makeup table. The black makeup smeared around her eyes began to bead and melt, and she blotted it away with cotton balls. Soon, she had a pile of blackened cotton stacking up on the tabletop, and her face still wasn’t clear.

The more Sofi watched, the more she could tell something was not quite right. Maybe Aspen hadn’t wanted to let him in here, and she hadn’t had a choice. But how could anyone like him force her to do anything when she completely wreck him with a wave of her hand? Sofi knew she had to be missing something. Keeping an eye on Aspen, she unzipped the garment bag with her name on it and pulled out her gown for the reception. It was a floor-length tulle gown in the lightest shade of ballerina pink. It was sleeveless, and there was delicate beading along the bust. Sofi loved it immediately. Stitch had _not_ disappointed. Holding the dress up to herself, she turned back to Aspen, who was watching her silently. “You think I’ll look good in this?”

Aspen gave Sofi a small smile that didn’t quite seem to reach her eyes, which still looked distant and sad. “You’re beautiful no matter what you wear.”

Sofi blew her a kiss as she laid her dress flat on the bed, still feeling uneasy but trying hard to brush it aside. “Do you want to see your dress too?”

“No.” Aspen answered, voice flattening out again.

That was a very Aspen answer, and anything else would’ve been a red flag to Sofi for sure. Sofi reciprocated with a very Sofi response: unzipping the garment bag anyway and pulling out Aspen’s gown. She couldn’t help but “ooh” and “ahh” the slightest bit. Stitch had thrown together an off-shoulder, A-line gown that would hit Aspen right at the knee. It was a smooth, satiny material, and it was the deepest shade of ruby red.

Aspen, who had watched Sofi take out the dress, twisted her mouth in a sour expression of distaste. “I’m not wearing that.”

“But it’s _so pretty.”_ Sofi couldn’t help being the slightest bit dazzled - Aspen in _any_ dress was a rare and special treat, and this particular dress would look delicious on her for sure. Sofi wanted her in it even if it was just to tear it right off later. “Did you request this color? I always thought blues and silvers were more your speed.”

“ _I_ didn’t,” Aspen pointed out. She was wiping at her eye with another cotton ball, which was still turning a dull grey. Her face looked slightly better than before, albeit more tired. Dropping the cotton ball onto the large pile, Aspen rubbed at her jaw again as though it were bothering her.

“Ah.” For a few minutes there, Sofi had been able to forget about Ichiji and his obnoxious family. “They’ll want you seated with him, you know.”

“They do.”

“Will every night be like this?”

“I don’t know.”

It was better than an outright ‘yes.’ For tonight, Sofi was sure she could make do with just Musette for company. She gave Aspen what she thought was an encouraging smile and a thumbs up. “It won’t be so bad to just...I dunno, suck it up, right?”

Aspen stood up suddenly, her chair falling hard to the ground behind her with a thud. Without another word, she turned and stormed into her bathroom, slamming and locking the door behind her. Sofi ran to the door and banged on it, hearing nothing but one of the tubs close to the door filling quickly with water.

“Okay...then…” Sofi was confused _and_ angry, then, and her face was getting very hot very fast. Something was _wrong_ with Aspen, it seemed - and if she couldn’t be bothered to tell Sofi what the fuck was the matter, then Sofi was going to drop the rope until she did. Nose held in the air, she snatched her dress off the bed and retreated to the bedroom she had not spent a single night in since her return. The air was cold, and the large bed - with its fluffy, ivory duvet - unslept in. Her clothes scattered all over were the only sign she used the room at all. 

Sofi threw open a heavy trunk at the side of her bed, containing the fifty pairs of shoes she wore the most often. Digging, she pulled out a pair of cream-colored heels that would suit her dress. They were exceptionally high, and the straps came halfway up her calf. Aspen would love them and hate them. 

She pulled off her sweater and threw it at the wall. And then her pants. And the headband her sister had sent her. Once she was fully naked, she picked up her pink robe, embroidered with roses, from under the bed and slipped it over her shoulders, tiptoeing back into Aspen’s room. It was empty, her dress still laying on the bed, the sound of running water still coming from the bathroom.

“Aspen?” Sofi was still fuming, of course, but she loved Aspen and _something was wrong_. She knocked once on the bathroom door, more gently than before. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Sofi was surprised by how close Aspen’s voice sounded, as though she were just sitting on the other side of the door. Her voice sounded oddly detached, even worse than when Sofi had first come in. “Just get ready without me. I’m think I’m getting sick.”

Sofi knew it was bullshit. She knew. But if Aspen wasn’t going to tell her - she wasn’t going to press it. “You bet, you fucking bitch. I’ll see you in a bit.”

**************

When Aspen didn’t show up on time to the reception, Sofi started to feel bad about having called her a bitch on what was technically still her birthday. It hadn’t been the best decision when she was _clearly_ already having a bad time. Even as short-staffed as the palace was, the ballroom was beautiful: the massive space had string lights hung from wall to wall across the massive, dark ceiling, with the subtle glow reflecting off of the crystal centerpieces at each table. Each table was draped in a richly silver tablecloth that pooled at the floor, and staff members flitted from spot to spot with trays of food and drink. Through long windows, there was a sweeping view of one of the palace gardens. Judging from the gentle illumination weaving through the garden, it looked as though some poor bastard had been sent out in the snow to drape lights all over the statues. 

Most of the guests had arrived - various heads of industry, other dukes and duchesses, visiting Marines, and a few famed university researchers as well - and they were all socializing with one another as a string quartet played. Every single one of the elegant ladies and gentlemen seemed very intent on keep a wide distance between themselves and the long, high table where the Vinsmokes were seated. The patriarch was mingling with the guests - hard to miss with how much he towered over nearly everyone - and the pink-haired princess (Sofi could not recall her name) had not shown at all. Goggles was drinking pretty heavily while loudly berating his staff attendant for not refilling his glass fast enough. The green-haired gorilla was drinking too, holding a tired-looking Musette hostage at his side, pausing between gulps to ogle her.

Ichiji sat alone, the seat directly beside him vacant. The longer Aspen was missing, the angrier he looked. Every now and then, he would take the smallest sip of the champagne someone had brought him, but he mostly sat quietly, arms folded across his chest. Sofi wondered if he was capable of holding his arms any other way.

A staffer carrying a tray of canapés went to speed by, and Sofi grabbed him hard by the arm. He nearly flipped the entire tray onto the floor. “Where is Aspen?”

The staffer - Grant? Sofi couldn’t remember his name, names for the staff were more Aspen’s thing anyway - looked very harried at the question, his large ears going red. “I am not sure, my lady. I believe Espresso sent Priya and Anja to check on her royal highness’s whereabouts.”

“Whereabouts?” This guy was useless. “She’s in her _room_. Why isn’t she _here?”_

Grant pulled his arm free and disappeared into the crowd of people.

“Hmph.” Sofi slumped back into her seat, one she had taken at a table mostly populated by people she did not know (and who would not try to talk to her), all of whom were either busy boozing or dancing. She didn’t care - she had chosen her seat for its clear view of both the high table and the doors. People were casually passing in and out through the double doors, laughing loudly, chattering, and all of them had a drink of some kind in hand.

“Are you fucking stupid? Why did you think that was anywhere near enough, you stupid girl?”

Sofi sighed, sipping at her own wine and looking at the Vinsmokes again. Goggles was on his feet, shouting at a staffer who looked on the verge of tears. Several guests within earshot were swiftly shuffling away, pretending they did not see. 

“I’m sorry, I just grabbed the first glass - “

“Am I _holding_ a regular glass?” He grabbed an oversized mug from the table and thrust it at her, knocking her round, oversized glasses askew. She stumbled backwards, holding her hands to her face.

 _“Aspen will not like that,”_ Sofi thought to herself, taking another sip of her fruity drink and wrinkling her nose at its lack of rum. Aspen had a reputation for treating her staff very well, and jobs at the palace were highly coveted - when the palace wasn’t playing host to Germa, anyway. If she saw Goggles’s behavior, she would go equally levels of apeshit on _him_.

The staffer began pleading. “I’m sorry, I really am, I can fetch you a -”

“Then stop standing here sniveling and -” Goggles stopped short, cutting himself off as he turned and looked over at the doors. He had a look of concentration on his face - or at least it seemed that he did, as Sofi couldn’t see his goddamn eyes.

“Sir?”

“Be quiet,” he snapped, shooing her away without a glance, still looking over at the double doors. Following his lead, Sofi looked over as well, straining to see through a crush of guests.

Slipping into the ballroom, pressed flat against the doors to avoid several pods of drunken guests that were talking, was Aspen. Keeping her head bowed low to avoid being recognized, she had her arms tight over her chest, concealing what Sofi could see was cleavage, for a change - someone must have put her in a special bra to make that happen. Her wobbling, unsteady gait told Sofi she was in heels as well.

Irritated, Sofi shot a glare at Goggles, who was busy grinning at Aspen in a way that showed as many of his teeth as possible. Had he known, or had it been an incredibly lucky guess? Her eyes lingered on the horn-like protrusions sticking from his headphones. _“Could he have heard her coming?”_

Sofi got to her feet as quickly as she could and began weaving through guests, many of whom had already begun to stumble and crash into each other. On any other night, Sofi would have been one of them - but this was a perfect chance to grab Aspen and try to figure out what was going on, see if she was okay and all that. And maybe even apologize for calling her a bitch. She needed to be sober for that.

“Sorry. Excuse me. Sorry.” Sofi cursed her choice of a long dress as she tugged it free from under another guest’s shoe for the fifth time since she’d gotten up. The part of her dress that was closest to the floor was beginning to look more dirty brown than pink. Aspen was so close and yet still so far; Sofi could see the back of her through the shoulders of the couple standing in front of her. Someone - obviously not Aspen herself - had taken the time to give her a half-up style, her hair shiny and gorgeous in the light. It rolled down past shoulders that were hunched over, as though Aspen were trying to hide.

A weird feeling began tingling its way down Sofi’s neck. She turned around and realized, to her great dislike, that Ichiji had also noticed Aspen’s appearance at the reception. Goggles had probably pointed her out. He had stood up from the high table and was headed her way, looking almost criminally undressed in comparison, wearing only black dress pants and a white, untucked dress shirt with its sleeves rolled up - he wore a cape constantly, so Sofi did not count his red one as a special touch. The guests couldn’t seem to get out of his way fast enough, wrenching themselves sideways into tables and staffers, stepping all over each other when they turned and saw him coming.

“Aspen,” Sofi hissed, side-stepping a particularly fat university researcher. She had seen his photo in the newspaper before. “ _Aspen!”_

Confused, Aspen stopped, turning towards Sofi’s voice. Whoever had done her makeup deserved a raise: her thick lashes were even more so, and her lipstick matched her dark red dress. If she looked even the slightest bit happy, it would have been even better. “I’m late, I know.” Aspen sighed, shrugging her shoulders and looking a little sad still. She didn’t notice that behind her, a path was clearing directly to her through the crowd. “I would’ve stayed in the bath forever if I could have. I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

“Sh, it’s fine, you’re fine.” Sofi grabbed Aspen’s wrist, closing her entire hand around it and pulled her close. If thought she had any time at all to get Aspen away from Ichiji, she would’ve bothered. “ _I’m_ sorry for calling you a bitch on your birthday. Or at all, really. I know it’s been a bad day for you, I -”

Aspen was snatched away from Sofi hard, causing Sofi to fall backwards against an empty table. A half-finished drink smelling strongly of vodka sloshed all over Sofi’s arm as she pulled herself up by the tablecloth. When she got back to her feet, she could see Ichiji had finally caught up, gripping Aspen’s wrist with one hand, his other hand on her hip as his arm was draped around her waist. He held her close, in what would have almost appeared affectionate if it hadn’t reeked of possessiveness to Sofi. His smirk was practically a leer. Aspen’s face appeared completely frozen, her eyes wide in shock.

Sofi, unsure why, felt compelled to look over at the high table again, where Ichiji’s siblings remained seated. The gorilla had not even noticed anything different in the slightest, still going on and on at Musette, who kept darting her eyes anxiously towards Aspen. Goggles was still standing, but he was not smiling anymore.

The same researcher that Sofi had swerved past earlier leaned to the woman to his left, and gestured to Ichiji and Aspen with a hand covered in rings. “They are _quite_ an attractive young couple, aren’t they?” He whispered loudly. “He’s a fine match for the princess, now that I’ve gotten a good look at him. Look at how sweet they are together.”

Sofi assumed Aspen somehow hadn’t heard the man, due to a noticeable lack of vomiting or any gagging noises at all. When Sofi looked closely at her, though, it almost seemed like she was smiling at him. All coy and pretty, her lashes low and her chin down. But Aspen would _never_.

A hand with a fat, hairy wrist went up above the others, raising a glass of sparkling wine and sloshing it. “It’s a bit on the premature side...but, to the future bride and groom!”

Now _Sofi_ felt ready to vomit. At this point, even the green gorilla had stopped flapping his gums and staring at Musette long enough to watch what was happening, an expression of mild interest on his face. Musette’s eyes met Sofi’s, and she made a concerned face. Goggles, still standing, was grimacing. His empty hand was clenched in a tight, white-knuckled fist.

The guests began nervously murmuring in agreement, reluctantly raising their glasses after some choice looks and throat-clearing from the council members in attendance and Judge Vinsmoke. Ichiji’s smirk spread wider as he looked down at Aspen, who did not move, speak, or change her expression in any way.

Hand after hand rose up, and Sofi saw a rainbow of sparkling bracelets, watches, rings, and other jewelry as the guests held up their glasses.

“To the happy couple.”

“To our future rulers.”

Sofi felt the floor below her lurch almost imperceptibly, in a subtle shudder. The cutlery on the table beside her began to vibrate slightly as well. She looked back over at Musette frantically, who had widened her eyes in fear.

None of the well-wishers seemed to notice, too busy toasting Aspen and Ichiji. She had finally tilted her head slightly back, still smiling sweetly at him as though he hadn’t yanked her out of Sofi’s arms only minutes before. Aspen had taken her free arm and slipped it around his waist.

The odd vibrating in the room increased somewhat, feeling like an odd humming within the floor itself. Sofi’s stomach dropped to her feet and slung back up as she realized what it was.

“Not here,” she whispered under her breath, eyeing Aspen. “Not here, you bitch. I get it now, I _get it_. Sell it. Fucking sell this little show of yours.” Sofi hadn’t even considered that Aspen was putting on a show for the guests, for the council - she did not envy her a bit. But it looked - felt, actually - as though Aspen was reaching a breaking point on how much she could stand.

“How about a kiss, your royal highnesses?” Sofi recognized Lars, a council member, calling to them both. She made a mental note to stab him when she could.

The force of the vibration tripled, but the guests were either too drunk to notice or determined not to. Palace staffers, all familiar with the telltale signs of an impending meltdown from their princess, were leaning against walls and holding onto columns. Surprisingly, Goggles alone was the only guest who seemed to realize something was amiss, looking from side to side with a deeply suspicious look on his face.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Aspen answered demurely. She was still smiling at Ichiji like he was her knight in shining armor, and not someone she loathed. He had finally released her wrist, and moved his hand to her chin, tilting her head back as he leaned in close to her. Ichiji, it seemed, _did_ know.

Sofi turned away right as the guests around her erupted into cheering. Act or not, she didn’t think she could deal with seeing that. Abandoned on the table, there was a flute of champagne, a halved strawberry floating inside, and she dumped the entire thing down her throat in one go. Strawberry and all. In the midst of the applause, she heard a loud bang, and looked over to see Goggles storming out as his large mug rolled across the floor.

Goggles did not return for the rest of the reception; Nexus and Reiju never showed up at all. Sofi eventually retreated to her seat at the table full of strangers as Yonji held Musette captive all night (by literally never Shutting the Fuck Up). Aspen stayed seated at Ichiji’s side for the entire night, putting on an unsettlingly convincing act of being deeply enamored. He kept an arm around her the whole time, every now and then taking a break from drinking to brush hair from her eyes and give her a lingering once-over that made Sofi uncomfortable to watch.

They had only been in Hoarfrost for a day, and already Sofi hated every single one of them. After the second kiss (immediately after the staff had brought out a birthday cake for Aspen and all the guests had drunkenly sang to her), Sofi decided that she’d had quite enough for one evening. Lifting the soft pink fabric of her dress to her knees, she snuck out of the reception unnoticed and alone.

Out in the quiet stillness of the hallway, Sofi punched as hard as she could into a bare patch of wall. Her knuckles popped loudly, and pain immediately shot all the way up through her elbow. Aspen had put on a performance - one Sofi had known for years was coming. It still stung that Aspen was so _convincing_. Not long ago at all, she had destroyed an entire section of the eastern wing at the very mention of Ichiji; now, she was perfectly content to be his arm candy for an entire room of palace elites she did not care for. She could not pretend it didn’t hurt, or that it didn’t make her angry. 

“Interesting. You couldn’t stomach that display either.”

Sofi spun around, startled, tripping on her dress and almost toppling an exceptionally ugly crow statue that had been set on a carved pedestal. “Who’s there?”

Goggles stepped out of the shadows, clutching a large, half empty bottle of whiskey. Sofi could tell from the label that it was a Hoarfrost specialty - and even more boozy than normal whiskey. His sideswept blue hair was disheveled, and his white shirt and black pants were stained. Above his goggles, the only curly eyebrow that Sofi could see was furrowed in anger.

Sofi made a face. “Have you been drinking out here for hours?” Prince or not, it was evident Goggles had _problems_. Nobody should’ve been able to stand after that much of the kingdom’s special whiskey. Or even normal whiskey.

Ignoring her, he walked to one of the windows across the hall, facing out towards the snowstorm that had blown in. He took a long, deep drink directly from his bottle; in the faint light, Sofi could see large beads of sweat on his face. “It was nauseating. I don’t know how anyone could sit through that with a straight face.” He took another drink, spilling a significant amount down his tie. When he saw that the bottle was empty, he threw it down the hall. Sofi noticed dark sweat stains under his arms as well. The effort just from throwing the bottle had him panting heavily. “An _exceptionally_ poor match for my brother.”

Sofi, who had been temporarily distracted by how unwell Goggles looked the longer she stared at him, flared with anger. “Do not,” she spat, pointing a manicured finger at him. “Dismiss my best friend like that. Your brother is lucky to breathe the same air as her.”

He stared in Sofi’s direction, looking taken aback. Slowly, his face twisted into a sneer. “You’re just as stupid as the rest of them.” Before Sofi could fire back, he stumbled off the way he’d come, shoulders hunched forward, hands jammed deep into his pockets. She could hear his heavy breathing, and saw him stumbling into walls as he disappeared into the darkness.

Taking Goggles’s place, Sofi walked to the window and pressed her face into the cold glass, closing her eyes and listening to the reception. One day down. Over 180 left.


	14. NEXUS IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- looks like the indenting is inconsistent again, not sure how that keeps happening

The council had, almost assuredly, noticed Nexus’s absence during the reception. For once, though, Nexus knew they’d welcome it as a blessing and a chance to further schmooze with Judge. Even across town from the palace, in his lab with his niece, just thinking about it disgusted him. Not a single man on that council had standards or dignity.

Reiju sat across from him, still wrapped in the dark pink coat she had worn on their way over though the lab was decently cozy. She reviewed summaries from years of lab reports on his research, her blue eyes growing wider the more she read. “So it _is_ possible to at least partially undo their modifications. I always thought so but I had no idea how.”

“I only had an idea of where to start because it was my work in the first place,” Nexus admitted, taking one more quick glance around the lab to make sure nobody had heard. Nearly everyone had taken holiday, with the arrival of the kingdom’s guests, but he could never be too careful. Getting caught with Reiju would not be good. Guest or not, a foreign princess deep inside the kingdom’s royal research facility would set off alarms for a lot of people. “But the modifications can be _partially_ undone, yes. The physical ones are likely to be permanent by this point, though there’s a chance their exoskeletons will weaken enough that injuring them will be much easier. Not much would change outside that. Mentally, though…”

“They’ll be able to experience the full range of emotions like a normal person.” Reiju said it as though she still couldn’t believe it. She lowered the papers onto the countertop, staring down at them. “I wonder what they’ll be like. If they’ll change dramatically or be the same as they are now.”

Nexus lit a cigarette as he sat backwards in his wheeled chair, hunched over to look at more of the results from subsequent rounds of testing. He moved the chair back and forth, listening to the wheels click on the tile. “I made a promise to your mother and I have every intention of keeping it. We - my assistant and I - were able to prepare three samples of the antibodies for this first round of testing. As you can imagine, we didn’t have any way of really testing it on people before.”

Reiju nodded, smiling dryly. “There aren’t many people like us.”

“These antibodies are not at the full strength they need to be,” Nexus explained, indicating a highlighted line in the report he held. “They need a year or two to be strong enough to fully undo the emotional modifications. But what we have now, at the strength available, it was worth it to see what happens. We might see some changes in your brothers. We might not.”

Nodding, Reiju leaned against the counter, propping her elbows up as she watched Nexus smoke. “What are you hoping to see?”

“Me? Any sort of positive improvement on what I’ve seen so far...and what I remember.” Nexus, unfortunately, remembered a lot, and the memories made his head hurt. He rubbed absently at his scalp. “I am interested in seeing how Yonji will be affected. Being the youngest of the four, he was the direct twin to…”

“To Sanji,” Reiju finished, as Nexus could not bring himself to say the name of his only unmodified nephew. He would’ve called it a miracle, but Sanji being born normal had come at the cost of his sister’s life - only for Sanji to die in an accident after Nexus had left Germa. It still hurt to think about. He had been so sweet, like his mother and sister.

“Yes. And _he_ ...was born normal. So there’s a chance that what your mother took that prevented... _his_...modifications from developing could have possibly affected Yonji’s, in some way.” Nexus took a deep, strong drag on his cigarette, and blew the smoke towards the vent directly above him. “The first set of twins, I have no idea what to expect at all.”

He had, naturally, _other_ questions about Ichiji and Niji that interested him - particularly Niji. He doubted whether he’d get answers to any of them.

Looking anxiously around, Reiju crossed and uncrossed her legs. He could tell all this talk of the changes was making her twitchy, like Sora used to get. “When will you administer the antibodies to them?”

Nexus chuckled. He had been hoping she would ask. “It’s probably already happened.”

Eyes going wider than Nexus would’ve thought possible, Reiju sat completely upright and leaned towards him. _“When?”_

“Not very long ago. I asked my assistant to sneak in with the event staff for the reception and put it in your brothers’ drinks. I’ve been told the treatment can have kind of an odd taste, but luckily for us, it’s completely masked by alcohol.” Nexus was feeling the slightest bit of his old smugness and bravado as he filled Reiju in. He only wished he could brag about it to Judge, and rub his face in it. _“You’ve had your super soldiers and you’ve had your playtime with my work. Science giveth, and science taketh away.”_

“Side effects?” Reiju asked urgently, looking equal parts worried and completely thrilled. She picked up the papers again and flipped through. “I didn’t see mention of any side effects but if my father suspects _anything_ …”

Nexus had anticipated that. He got up and sat back down in his chair properly, leaning all the way back and putting his hands behind his head, letting his cigarette ash all over him. “Very minor side effects. There’s a possibility of mild flu-like symptoms - heavy sweating, headache, chills - that kind of thing. I’ve been told any symptoms presenting is a good sign, and the stronger the better…”

The door to the lab flew up, and both Nexus and Reiju sprang up from their seats. Nexus’s cigarette fell onto his hand, burning him slightly before falling to the floor. As he swore loudly, Corte, bundled in heavy outdoor wear, stumbled in. She shook ice and snow all over the floor as she unbuttoned her coat to hang it on the wall hook beside Nexus’s, revealing the uniform of the palace staffers beneath. Her glasses were fogged, and she was panting.

Nexus ran to her, trigger light after automatic light to flicker back to life. “How did it go?” He asked excitedly, taking her scarf and her hat. His heartbeat was fast in his chest and he was practically bouncing in place - he couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so excited.

“It...went.” Corte grumbled, kicking off her boots and spraying Nexus with melting snow as she shook herself off. When she spotted Reiju standing close beside Nexus, she froze, mouth sagging open.

“Princess Reiju can be trusted,” Nexus quickly assured Corte. He longed to tell her more, but did not dare. He trusted Corte with his work and many of his secrets, but he was not ready to tell her about his relationship with the Vinsmoke family.

“Ah. Well, yes, it went, and I would prefer you never ask me to do such a thing ever again.” Corte accepted Nexus’s vouching for Reiju with no protest, and he could see fury in her face as her glasses cleared up. “I’ve never in my _life_ interacted with young men so nasty and so crass. The blue-haired one shouted at me and hit me with his glass.” She took her glasses off to show them both a red, swollen indent from where her glasses had been forced against the bridge of her nose. “I could barely get the green-haired one to acknowledge me at all, he was so preoccupied with the chest of the poor staff girl that’s been assigned to him. Not a damn care in the world that he was openly ogling the poor thing in full view of everyone.”

Nexus was glad he’d decided to withhold his relation to Reiju - and thus, his nephews.

Corte seemed to remember who else was present, as she turned to Reiju. “I mean no offense to you, your highness. You seem very lovely so far.”

Reiju held up a hand. “To be clear: I know the kind of people my brothers are. Please don’t feel any need to apologize to me.”

“It was an affront to me just as a person,” Corte continued, taking her lab coat down from a separate hook and pulling it on, angrily shoving her arms through the sleeves. “We are both exceptionally lucky that I did not lose my composure.”

“I will do it myself next time,” Nexus vowed to Corte, still hovering over her as she walked to her workstation - he hadn’t even started to think about the next time. He stopped to exchange a look with Reiju, who he knew was thinking the same thing as him - the reception was attended by council members, high-ranking society members, and their own father. None of that had seemed to chasten his nephews. That gave him a bad feeling.

Corte gave him a beseeching look, in a break from her anger. “The red-haired one, he’s the worst of the three. Not openly rude but...he’s so cold. I just get the coldest feeling from him.”

“Unsurprising,” Reiju murmured.

“How can you just let Aspen marry someone like that?”

“Aspen and Ichiji’s match is something _completely_ removed from my purview,” Nexus explained, nervous and both deeply exasperated. The belief that he was just standing aside and _choosing_ not to intervene in the deeply unpopular match was a pervasive one - and he was tired of having to explain that there was nothing he could do. “But they were given the samples?”

“Yes.” Corte paused as she slowly sat in her seat, looking thoughtful. “But…”

“But?” Nexus and Reiju asked in unison.

Corte looked hesitant. “That red-haired one only drank about half of his, and it took him a good bit to even do that. One of his brothers took his glass when he got up and drank the rest.”

“He _what?”_ Nexus could not mask the strain in his voice. It was such a completely obvious, likely hiccup, both the prolonged dosing and incomplete ingestion of the sample. He had prepared for neither.

Reiju could not miss his reaction, and she tightened her grip on the edge of her seat. “What does that mean?”

“It means that he likely didn’t take enough to make _any_ kind of a difference in his mental state or emotions,” Corte explained. “Whereas the brother who had a full sample and a half…”

“Who drank the rest of Ichiji’s glass?” Reiju pressed as Nexus buried his face in his hands. It was such a _rookie_ mistake. He had been doing this for decades and he had gotten so swept up in the emotion of finally reaping the results of his work that _he had fucked up._

“I don’t know,” Corte admitted, lowering her head, her brown hair shagging into her face. “It could have been the green-haired one, it could have been the blue-haired one. All I saw was the red-haired one set his drink down about two-thirds full and walked away, and when I looked again it was empty and on the floor. The other two were the only ones sitting at that table.”

Nexus let out a frustrated groan and tugged hard at his hair.

Corte gave a sideways frown. “Honestly, either of those two could use it. I am not too terribly torn up over this.”

“Prince Niji and Prince Yonji will _not_ be the ones spending a prolonged amount of time exclusively in Princess Aspen’s company!” Nexus shot back, furious more with himself than Corte. _How_ had he not anticipated this, or planned for this?

“Can we formulate any excuses to keep her royal highness and the red-haired one apart?” Corte looked abashed at the mention of how it could affect the princess.

“Father will not let that happen,” Reiju gently chimed in.

“We need to administer a new sample to Ichiji, _immediately_.” Nexus declared.

With a sigh, Corte was back to looking annoyed, and she turned back to the stack of unfinished lab reports at her workstation. “We can’t. Remember what I told you? What we used tonight was all we had ready for use. It’ll take at least another three months to mature a sample to the strength of what we used tonight.”

Three months felt like an eternity considering Ichiji was bound to have almost full, unrestricted to access to Aspen at all times, as her betrothed. It would be a living nightmare for Aspen, a full realization of everything she’d dreaded for years. She would throw Ichiji out the window with a gesture the moment he tried anything.

Nexus’s stomach dropped to his feet. Not once had he thought to mention to Aspen that the Vinsmokes were unaware of her psychic gifts - and keeping them hidden could be an ace up their sleeve. He sprang to his feet and rushed to grab his coat and scarf from where they hung.

“Where are you going?” Reiju got to her feet and followed him, still wearing her coat from earlier. When she saw Nexus pulling his back, she turned her collar back up and pulled her hood securely over her head.

“We need to speak to Aspen immediately or she’s going to throw one hell of a monkey wrench into all of this.” He had no assurance that she hadn’t already. Nexus could’ve kicked himself. Not preparing for the dosing to go wrong _and_ not telling Aspen to keep her psychic powers under wraps? He could not afford for anything else to gum up the works.

As he and Reiju rushed out of the lab, Nexus took a quick look at the clock that hung over Corte, who had absorbed herself in her work. The reception would be beginning to wind down soon enough - the perfect time to catch Aspen alone.

  
  


***************

Once they were back at the palace, Reiju had broken off from Nexus to avoid arousing suspicion should they be seen together. She assured him she’d keep an eye on Niji and Yonji until they could speak privately again. When they arrived - separately - at the ballroom where the reception was beginning to slow down, he watched from a distance as she melted into the still-sizeable crowd as though she’d been there all along. After she was out of sight, Nexus carefully crept up to the doors, sneaking in along the side and keeping his head down. He just need to grab Aspen and get out, that was -

He was immediately seized by the lapels of his coat and shoved against the wall.

“Where the everloving _fuck_ have you been?” Aspen was a shade beyond livid, her delicate facial features contorted in rage. Nexus, taken aback by seeing her with her hair and makeup done - and in a dress, no less - could not formulate an immediate response.

“Aspen.” He was just relieved to have found her so quickly. “I need to talk to you, about Prince Ichiji -”

Aspen pressed a hand over Nexus’s mouth, and quickly looked around. After seeing them surrounding on all sides by several drunken guests, she moved her hand. “So do I,” she hissed at him, sweeping a wave of black away from her neck. All along her pale skin, from jaw to the dip of her shoulder, were bruises in varying shades of purple and red. They were all completely uniform in size.

Nexus had not anticipated that either.

She quickly dropped her hair back into place, concealing the hickeys, and gave another paranoid look around them. “This is just from the last two hours.”

“I - I’m working on it,” Nexus stammered, his face beginning to redden. _During_ the reception? And _nobody_ had intervened on Aspen’s behalf? “But, I needed to tell you, about your gifts...our guests don’t know you have them. You must promise me you won’t use them.”

Aspen gave a humorless laugh, with another quick look around. “And why would I agree to that? It’s the only thing I have over on any of them. They’re bigger than me, stronger than me - physically, anyway - and this is _all_ I have. Why shouldn’t I use it?”

Nexus had been afraid of that response, and was unsure of what could be said to convince her. He proceed to throw anything he could think of. “Because I practically raised you after your father died and I am trying very very _very_ hard to help you but you need to help me help you so _please_ just -”

“You want me to play the weakling to these spoiled princes?” Aspen’s face pinched in anger, her eyes narrowing.

“I have spent _years_ preparing for this,” Nexus begged. “Years. I ask little of you, in the grand scheme of things. This is the only thing I am literally begging you to do for me. _Please_ , Aspen. Promise me you will not use your powers no matter what.”

She held up both hands, her face looking drawn, and very unhappy. “Fine. _Fine_. I...trust you. And I do owe you. Though it seems like that miracle cure of yours isn’t working out like you planned, is it?”

He didn’t want to know how she knew, though he supposed stress was all over his face and he was exuding an overall aura of panic. “It still might, there have just been a few...things that have happened that I can learn from.”

Aspen rubbed tiredly at her jaw. She was beginning to look mad again. “It’s great that you’re gung-ho about this magic miracle of yours but making Ichiji only _half_ superhuman isn’t going to magically make me more interested in marrying him.”

“Er, well, Ichiji’s dose didn’t work out as intended,” Nexus nervously admitted, leaning further back into the wall, just out of range for her to slap him. He had a feeling tonight was the wrong night to test Aspen’s patience. “So we might have to wait until -”

Her green eyes narrowed to slits. “You didn’t get this shit to the _one goddamn Vinsmoke that matters?”_

“I -”

“So...what, then? I just have to deal with being forcefully face-fucked by my charming future husband until your magic medicine can make Ichiji grow a heart?” Aspen gave yet another look around the drunken guests to ensure they had not been overheard.

Nexus’s face blanched, but he quickly recovered. “Hickeys,” he scolded Aspen, as though she were a child again, making sure to keep his voice low. “Are not the same as face-fucking. Do not give me a heart attack like that.”

Looking angrier still, Aspen opened her mouth to argue when a black-gloved hand cut through the guests standing behind them and rested on her shoulder. She went pale, almost ghostly so in her red dress, and she quickly clamped her mouth closed.

“ _There_ you are. I’ve been looking for you.” Nexus’s eldest nephew towered over Aspen in plain black dress pants and a white shirt with his sleeves rolled up, his cape hanging elegantly at his back. He was smiling down at Aspen, but Nexus could see anger in his blue eyes. Ichiji’s grip on Aspen’s shoulder tightened slightly, pressing into the soft skin. “I was beginning to think you’d gone to bed without saying goodnight.”

“Ah, I - I am soon,” Aspen explained, her voice starting off shaky but warming slightly at the end. She looked as though she were smiling at Ichiji - something that made Nexus immediately suspicious. “I just wanted to say goodnight to our guests first.”

“It’s still so early.” Ichiji did not sound happy at all, though he continued to speak gently and without raising his voice.

Aspen’s smile didn’t waver. “I’m not a superhuman like you, my dear. I get sleepy pretty early on.”

 _“My dear?”_ That was off-putting to Nexus. She _hated_ Ichiji. Nexus felt he was missing something very important, and he cursed himself for having missed the reception. _“I certainly hope Sofi wasn’t around to hear that.”_

Ichiji in no way looked convinced, but did seem placated by Aspen’s answer. At any rate, he let go of her shoulder. Eyeing Nexus with suspicion, he turned and left, walking through the crowd of drunks that parted before him.

Before Nexus could say another word, Aspen was gone as well, sneaking off like a cat without a single goodnight to anyone. Droves of guests began to follow shortly thereafter, stumbling and mumbling to each other, hanging onto the walls and each other as they shuffled down the hall towards their overnight accommodations. Nexus stood perfectly still just inside the door, watching. Famous professors and researchers. Dukes and duchesses. The best of the best had come out for this. He was not sorry to have missed them.

Judge stumbled by, his heavy footsteps shaking the room. When he noticed Nexus, he snorted. “I see you’re still sneaking around like a rat.” The stench of alcohol was radiating off of him in powerful waves.

Nexus said nothing. He did not even look at him out of fear he would blurt out his plan simply out of spite for this man he’d hated for so long. 

After a minute or two, Judge laughed at Nexus, and continued on. Reiju trailed silently behind her father, and she gave Nexus a smile and a wink.

“...I don’t know what you’ve been told, but _size matters_. I’m lucky I’m the largest of my brothers. I’m stronger than the both of them. I’m sure you’d agree, if I had the chance to really show you. You don’t look half as stupid as the other servants around here.”

“Thank you, my lord.”

“You wouldn’t think I’m the youngest, would you? Apart from my name? I really am so much bigger and stronger than Ichiji and Niji. If everything had been determined by size alone and not our birth order then _I_ would be #1.”

“But then you would be Ichiji, my lord, and not Yonji.”

Behind everyone came Prince Yonji with Musette at his side, looking exhausted but otherwise holding up well. Yonji had a hand on her shoulder to lean on her, his weight making her knees buckle. Nexus could see he was sweating profusely, and reeked of booze even more than his father. When Musette saw Nexus, she struggled to balance Yonji as she gave a small, polite bow. “Nexus.”

“Musette,” he gave a nod back, slightly amused at her predicament. She was devoid of any apparent bruising or bite marks, which was a definite plus. It appeared as though Yonji had kept his hands to himself for the most part, aside from using Musette as a human crutch. 

Yonji glanced over at Nexus, his eyes squinting in concentration. Nexus could see quite a bit of sweat pouring down his forehead. “Aren’t you kind of in charge around here?” He slurred at Nexus as he pointed down at Musette. “I put in a request for her to be added to my personal staff. When are you gonna approve that?”

“ _Aspen_ would need to approve it, my lord,” Musette sounded a touch irritated, as though she had pointed that out to him already.

“Er…” Nexus could not think of a request Aspen was less likely to grant. “I will...speak to the Princess Aspen. Musette, please go ahead and make preparations to join Prince Yonji’s staff starting tomorrow.” He would simply have to deal with Aspen. She would not like knowing they’d gotten rid of Scallion just for Musette to be subjected to Yonji.

Yonji nodded enthusiastically. “Great.” He paused to wipe sweat from his brow, breathing hard and heavy. “Thank you.”

Both Nexus and Musette’s eyebrows shot sky-high at that, and she gave him a look of surprise. No other words were exchanged, and Nexus watched as they continued out into the darkness of the hall.

“If you’ll be on my staff that means you need to take one of the rooms near me,” he heard Yonji inform Musette as they stumbled away.

“The staff you only just dismissed today are still in there, my lord...they will not have cleared out until tomorrow.” Musette explained patiently.

“You can stay in my room tonight, then.”

Nexus’s body stiffened in offense when he heard Yonji suggest that, but Musette handled it gracefully as they turned the corner. “No, my lord, but that is a kind offer…” 

One by one, the last of the guests left, and Nexus found himself alone in an empty ballroom that smelled like a brewery. There were empty and half-empty champagne glasses all over, and discarded plates of unfinished food. He had not noticed Ichiji leaving, and he hadn’t seen Niji at all. Nexus turned and left as the cleaning crew swept in, stacking plates into giant tubs destined for the kitchens and tying up the tablecloths to throw away altogether.

The halls were empty too, save for a couple large bottles of whiskey, all of them empty; Nexus picked one up and examined it. It was the kingdom’s own, unimported. A couple of guests must’ve polished it off together.

“Where were you all night?”

Nexus nearly had a heart attack, dropping the bottle loudly to the floor as Gogo stepped out of a doorway, still dressed in her military uniform with all of her medals. Thankfully, she did not appear intoxicated in any way. 

“My lab.” Nexus saw no point in lying to her, as he was still dressed in his heavy coat and scarf. “I assumed the council would either not notice or not care.”

“How perceptive of you.” She walked with him further down the hall, towards the northwestern wing where they both lived. Nexus noticed a few other empty whiskey bottles, but said nothing. “We had attempted trespassers on the grounds, during the reception. In crow masks. Priya ended up having to kill three of them. Others got away.”

“Did the guests notice?”

“No.”

“Good.” Nexus was not sure what else to say. He just did not want Gogo to start in again about how badly they needed Germa’s troops - particularly not after hearing that Aspen was already struggling to handle Ichiji’s attention.

“We had to escort one of your nephews to his room,” Gogo added, dropping her voice low even though they were completely alone. He could scarcely hear her over the howling wind pushing hard at the windows. “Sweating up a storm, shivering, beyond intoxicated. Quite a belligerent princeling.”

It had to be Niji - he was the only one Nexus had not seen at all. “Oh?” Nexus tried to sound mildly interested. _“All those whiskey bottles must have been his, then.”_

“Sweating through his clothes, shaking chills - do you think that was just from being drunk?” Gogo’s tone was casual, but Nexus could feel her staring hard at him, looking for any kind of tell. “For a modified human?”

Nexus shrugged, fumbling for a cigarette. “We do produce the most concentrated hooch in the North Blue. It’s not a secret.” They passed through the hub, which was slightly busier than it had been in the last day - staffers bringing dishes and trash from the ballroom passed by with carts, conversing in low voices. 

Gogo was not impressed. “He kept...stumbling into things, a bit more than if he were just drunk. Destroyed a priceless sculpture.”

“Okay. Tell that to Judge, and the council.” Nexus did not care at all for most of the art in the palace. There were only so many statues of wolves, moose, and dead kings one could stand, and Snøvanger palace had twice that number.

“He didn’t take those goggles off - nearly took Anja’s hand off for trying.”

Nexus did not react. He puffed on his cigarette and offered it to Gogo, who refused, without looking.

Gogo dropped her voice even lower. “Mind telling me why that might be?”

Nexus sucked in deep, closing his eyes for a minute and listening to his own heartbeat as they walked. “No. No, I don’t think that’s my business to share anymore.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- for one of the princes I'm going to incorporate a fun theory I saw on Tumblr awhile ago - I need to dig up specifically where it came from so I can provide proper credit once it's more evident


	15. ASPEN IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- MAJOR smut ahead, and a healthy serving of non-con

“Wake up.”

“Get your red-haired loverboy to entertain you,” Sofi grumbled before ending the transponder call.

That stung a bit. Aspen called back immediately.

"Bitch wake up.”

“This had better be good.”

“Do I ever disappoint?” Aspen took a heavy gulp of blueberry wine as she laid back on her chaise lounge, feeling the satiny fabric sliding against her skin. Even though the wine didn’t stop burning on the way down, she was two glasses deep and feeling wonderful.

“Aside from constantly?” Sofi sounded slightly more awake, and intrigued. “But fine, I’ll bite. What do you want?”

“Come here.” Aspen fidgeted with the lace on one of her thigh high stockings. Clearly, the thickness of her thighs had been either ignored or underestimated when they had been picked out for her. 

Sofi let out an irritated whine that was scratchy through the transponder.

“Please.” Aspen took another drink, polishing off her third glass, setting it down by the thin silver candles she had lit earlier.

“It had better be worth it. Give me five.” Sofi ended the call. Satisfied, Aspen dropped the transponder on the floor, sticking both hands into her bralette to adjust her tits to look as appealing as possible to Sofi. There wasn’t a whole lot to work with, but she did what she could.

A few minutes later, Aspen heard the door open. “Waking me this late, you had better have something -” Sofi stopped mid-complaint. Aspen, head beginning to spin just a little bit, tried to pull herself into a better sitting position to see her. The lace eye mask covering half her face conspired against her as well. All she could see were blurry curls and a pink robe.

“Is it your singular goal in life to stress me out?” Sofi’s voice sounded closer, and she could feel soft hands on her hip and on her shoulder. “Holy shit.”

“I wore this just for you, gorgeous.” The stockings and heels had been part of her outfit for the reception, but she knew Sofi would like them. Her black mesh bralette and matching shorts had been the least embarrassing of the lingerie someone had recently gifted to her.

Sofi hooked a finger into the shorts, gently pulling them down to expose more of Aspen’s hip. “I don’t know where to start.”

“Start by kissing me.”

Sofi gladly obliged, kissing Aspen softly and climbing onto the lounger with her, kneeling between her legs. She slipped a hand between Aspen’s thick, soft thighs and began rubbing her insistently through her underwear. Having been plenty wet before she’d even called Sofi, Aspen moaned into Sofi’s mouth from the feel of the slick mesh against her skin. She felt Sofi feeling the rope handcuffs she’d tied around her wrists earlier, pulling them tighter together as she held them above her head.

Pleased at having restrained Aspen, Sofi giggled, peppering her face with kisses from her mouth to her ear. She moved to push her thick, loose waves away from her neck. Aspen felt Sofi’s kisses slow, and then stop. Sofi sat up, pulling away. “What the hell are these?”

The hickeys. Aspen had completely forgotten about them after the first glass of wine. She had meant to cover them up, or try the ointment Wintergreen had slipped her - and both of those things had slipped her mind. “Sofi -”

“Great, thanks! Good to know you can’t even be bothered to do something about those before inviting me over.” The lounge felt lighter, and Aspen could hear Sofi getting up and walking away in a huff.

“Oh, come _on_ ,” Aspen slurred, a touch too tipsy to really convey how upset she felt. This was certainly turning out to be the worst birthday she’d had in years. The goal had most certainly not been to upset Sofi; the goal had been to get obliterated and sexed-up with Sofi to forget the _fucking terrible day she’d had._ “Sofi, stop, I can’t chase you in heels.”

She heard the door slam as she managed to pull herself upright. Sighing miserably, Aspen lowered her still-bound hands and tried to pour more wine into her glass, spilling more on the table than in her glass. It just wasn’t fair. She pounded back the entire glass in a go, trying not to gag at the taste. Her vision began to blur even more, and every inch of her skin tingled.

As Aspen attempted to drink more straight up from the bottle, she heard the door open again. She could feel cold wine streaming down her body, running over her tits and down her belly, some of it even reaching her thighs. Running the risk of pissing Sofi off even further, she laughed loudly. “I knew you couldn’t stay away.”

Sofi said nothing, but Aspen could hear her breathing. Slightly struggling to stay upright any longer, Aspen slammed the bottle back onto the table. “You like to act like you’re all mad at me but we _both_ know that -”

Aspen didn’t finish her sentence before being shoved onto her back on the lounge, catching her off-guard and knocking the wind out of her. Sofi’s mouth quickly latched hard onto hers, forcing her tongue in as one hand grabbed her bound wrists and the other went to her tits, rubbing each of her nipples in turn through the bralette with rough fingertips. Overwhelmed, Aspen shuddered at every touch, her skin sensitive and needy.

 _"This is more like it,”_ Aspen thought to herself happily, eagerly matching Sofi’s hungry kisses and trying to arch her body towards her, falling short. There was no reason to have been so bitchy. Breathing heavily, Aspen matched her movements to Sofi as she always did, fumbling slightly from all the wine. Sofi bit at her lip, prying a gasp out of Aspen, who struggled against her wrist bindings.

Moving to the unbruised side of Aspen’s neck, Sofi began biting and sucking all the way down, licking at small patches of skin and driving Aspen crazy. When she hit the spot where neck met shoulder, she bit and sucked even harder, breaking the skin slightly and forcing Aspen’s thighs to spread wide open of their own volition. Getting wetter by the second, Aspen arched even higher, desperate for Sofi’s body against her own.

Sofi was pressing all the right buttons, and quickly. Her mouth moved further down, and a hand unhooked the front clasp of the bralette. Sofi pulled the cups away with her mouth as the hand that had been pinching and stroking Aspen’s nipples found its way into her shorts. Roving fingertips moved over the softest skin, pressing down just above her clit and sliding down to probe at her wet folds. A few fingers felt for her aching clit and began moving just above it in slow, steady circles. Gasping, Aspen forced her legs even wider, leaving one leg to dangle off the lounge completely.

“Oh, _god_.” Aspen could feel her horrible day sliding off of her as her head spun faster and the lace mask made it seem as though she were seeing the world through broken glass. She only wished Sofi would just lay over her, the way she always did, enveloping her with the welcome body heat - but her body was tragically out of reach for the time being. Aspen’s eyes slid in and out of focus on the ceiling, her bound wrists still held tight. She tried to sit up, to be closer to Sofi, and she was shoved back down.

A knee braced against the inside of Aspen’s knee, pinning one leg against the back of the lounge. From the sharp pressure, she knew there would be bruises in the morning. For a moment, she was distracted by what felt like pants against her stockinged leg - hadn’t Sofi been in just a robe? But that thought flitted away just as swiftly as it had arrived. Sofi was sucking noisily on Aspen’s tits, alternating sides and making Aspen squirm harder. She could feel warm saliva dripping off of her and onto the seat of the lounge.

She tried to sit up again.

She was pushed back down again.

Between her legs, Aspen felt Sofi easily shoving two fingers inside her, slipping them in easily with how thoroughly soaked she was. Even with all the work Sofi had been putting in to loosen Aspen up since she’d gotten back from Åker, it was still a very tight fit - and tonight it even felt as though Sofi’s fingers were far bigger than they used to be. She could feel every knuckle, the rough fingertips, pressing insistently into her. Breathing hard and biting down on her bottom lip, she tried to close her legs slightly to encourage Sofi to _slow down_ \- but she couldn’t budge her one leg from behind Sofi’s knee.

That...felt off. Aspen had _always_ been stronger than Sofi. But then, Sofi was sober and Aspen was not. Perhaps that was it. She twitched, pressing her ass into the seat of the lounge to try and get Sofi to pull her fingers out a bit. She could feel her wetness dripping out of her, through her underwear, and soaking into the seat. Sofi did not appear to be getting the hint.

“Be _gentle_ ,” Aspen whined through ragged breaths, right as Sofi bit down on one of her nipples. Not hard, by any means - but hard enough. Sofi had never bitten her there before. “Cut it out. Be gentle,” Aspen insisted, stammering, mind clouded with lust and booze.

The hand that had been holding her wrists released them to pull off her underwear, completely soaked and sticky. The knee that had been pinning her leg moved just a bit, and Aspen pulled free. She pressed her legs close together and lifted her hips as her underwear was pulled down - and then she used her feet to get it off. Once they were gone, the same knee forced its way back between her thighs and pinned her leg once again. The fingers that had been buried deep inside her were pulled out, drawing out wet noises as they did. They moved back to her clit, resuming the circular motions from before, making it throb even harder.

Aspen could not remember a time when Sofi was ever so forceful and rough with her, but she was enjoying it too much to complain more than she already had. Sofi suddenly pulled both her hands and her mouth away, and Aspen took a break from moaning to whine in disappointment. The knee at her leg moved again too, and she could hear the rushed fumbling over fabric, buttons, and a zipper over her own heavy breaths and heartbeat. When the knee came back, it was bare skin against her stockings. 

_“Wasn’t she in just a robe?”_ Aspen thought, again, as Sofi’s hands went all over her, fondling and caressing. Still gazing upward to the ceiling, Aspen shook her head, beginning to feel that perhaps a little much wasn’t adding up - even considering her debilitating levels of aroused and tipsy. Sofi didn’t bite her nipples, or shove her, or finger her like that. Sofi could be sweet and gentle to a fault 99% of the time. Sofi also was not a fan of grabbing Aspen’s wrists - that was what the rope cuffs were for.

“Sofi?” Aspen asked breathlessly, trying to will herself to sober up even the slightest bit. Her vision remained an out-of-focus kaleidoscope, and the flickering candlelight as the only illumination did not help at all.

Aspen could feel herself being touched and prodded again by something pressing between her legs, sliding over wetness and nudging at her clit, sending small shockwaves of pleasures through her body. Under the moans and gasps, a small alarm began to go off in Aspen’s head. She tried to open her mouth when he clit was bumped again, turning her planned question into a breathy moan.

Hands - strong hands far too big to be Sofi’s - grasped her by her hips then, fitting almost the entire edge of her hipbones into the palms and digging trimmed nails into her skin. Aspen felt herself being pulled down against whatever had been rubbing against her clit. She felt a significant amount of pressure at her opening, straining hard against her. Sweat broke out on Aspen’s forehead as she felt it pushing inside her, slowly, helped along by how achingly wet she was. The force of the stretch was an uncomfortable sensation that felt almost like a burn.

Despite having never had sex before, Aspen had fooled around with Stitch enough to know what a cock felt like. Frantically, Aspen swung her arms up to her face, twisting her wrists to claw at her lace mask. The pressure and burning stretch grew more intense, and the hands pulled her down harder despite her trying to press her hips back and away. “Sofi?” She asked urgently, dreading the answer she knew was coming.

“Did you _really_ believe it was Sofi all this time?” Ichiji, irritated by her attempts to pull away, yanked her down again by her hips, forcing himself even further inside her. Aspen bit down on her lip again to keep from crying out in pain. “You’re stupider than I thought.”

“ _Stop,”_ Aspen demanded, finally succeeding in ripping the mask off. Her vision was no better than it had been, but she could clearly see _him_ where Sofi should have been - red hair, strong arms, and the smirk she could feel even if she couldn’t see it. She tried again to get away, her excessive alcohol intake blunting her ability to react with the visceral panic the situation called for. “Stop it. _Stop.”_

“Hm...no.” He leaned into Aspen, pressing his body against her the way she’d craved when she’d still thought he was Sofi. She could feel him sinking into her a little further as he let out a groan. “I’m glad I _didn’t_ rip those leggings off earlier...now I have all the time in the world to appreciate how tight you are.”

Aspen was well aware that Ichiji was much bigger than her, but with him directly on top of her, pressing harder into her and driving her down against the lounge, he felt even bigger still. The more she struggled beneath him - twisting her hips, puling her body back - the more he filled her, pressing into sensitive parts that even Sofi had never reached. Sweat was pouring over her body as she realized there was nothing she could do - as drunk as she was, she couldn’t even get the cuffs off. Her telekinesis would be equally useless.

“Get OFF of me,” Aspen insisted, swinging her arms down around his shoulders and trying to leverage that to press herself up and out of his grasp.

Chuckling at her struggle, she felt him pull almost completely out of her before thrusting back in, completely filling Aspen with ease. The force wrenched a moan out of her, against her will, and she squeezed her arms around him as she buried her face in his neck. She could still feel the same burning soreness, but - to her horror - it was beginning to feel good as well.

“Still want me to stop?” Ichiji’s voice was mocking, even as his breathing got heavier. He released Aspen’s hips to wrap his arms around her, putting one behind her shoulders and grasping at the back of her head and running the other at the back of her hips. He was completely on top of her and completely in her as well - Aspen’s head was spinning, and not just from the wine anymore. His hand brushing against her bare back made her jerk her hips involuntarily, pulling back and causing him to slip nearly out again.

He pushed back, slowly but forcefully. Aspen, still clutching herself to him, kept her face buried in the side of his neck. She wanted him to stop - _needed_ him to stop - but knew she was too far gone to fight back. Her own body disagreed with her, feeling hot and pleasant as her hips began rocking back and forth, matching his thrusts. Breathing even heavier than before, she kept her eyes screwed tightly shut - every attempt at opening them only made the room spin faster.

After several minutes of heaven and hell, she struggled to speak. “This wasn’t part of our deal,” she mumbled, barely audible. From all the sweating, the rope cuffs had slid off - but Aspen didn’t have it in her to struggle anymore. She twisted her fingers in the upper sweep of his red hair, feeling how it was softer and silkier to the touch than she’d thought before. Everything was dizziness, and his continued thrusting - each one managing to stimulate her clit, sending wave after wave of hot tingling over her - was _incredibly_ distracting. She hated how good it felt. How would she ever be able to explain herself to Sofi? “This _wasn’t_ part of our deal.”

“Our _deal?”_ Ichiji was barely capable of speaking himself, squeezing Aspen tighter in his arms and forcing a gasp out of her. “The deal was...you be the perfect fiancee...how is this not part...of the deal?” He broke off abruptly as Aspen finally caved and wrapped her legs around his waist. She could feel her legs, still sheathed in stockings, sliding against his skin. That felt good too. “Isn’t this what people who are getting married _do?”_

“I will _never_ marry you.” Moving her legs had shifted the angle of her pelvis, and it felt as though he were filling her even more deeply than before. It sent tingles through her belly. She tried to dig her nails into his skin, to no avail, keeping her eyes tightly shut. “I want to be done.”

That remark seemed to irritate Ichiji. “Do you, now?” He removed the arm that had been behind her and slid it between them. Aspen again felt pressure moving in firm circles on her clit. “I can make that happen.”

Even more sweat began dripping off of Aspen, and she tightened her grip around him. “Stop. Not that. I don’t want that.” She didn’t want any of it, but she _especially_ didn’t want that, not with him. She could never look Sofi in the eye again if it happened. Who would believe Aspen then that she hadn’t wanted it? He kept massaging her clit, and the tension that had been knotting in her pelvis felt as thought it was getting tighter. “I don’t want to.”

“But _I_ want you to.” His thrusts slowly began to increase in speed and force, battering a whimpering Aspen who was barely holding on him anymore. He kept moving his finger determinedly over her clit, which she could feel swelling and throbbing harder.

“ _Don’t.”_ Aspen’s hips and thighs began to shiver on their own as she back arched farther and farther off the lounge. Every single muscle in her body was tensing and holding.

Ichiji turned his head, pressing his mouth right against her ear, and his hot breath made her skin prickle even more. “You want to be done?” His voice had gotten as unsteady as hers, but she could still hear his smirk, even if she still could not see it. “Then come for me, sweetling.”

She did. Aspen wanted more than anything not to, but she did. Before he’d even finished talking, her hips began pumping and jerking wildly, to the point that he grabbed hold of her hips once more to try and control her. Unable to breathe or think, she pressed her mouth into the side of his neck to muffle the sounds she was making - noises she hadn’t made before - and she could taste his sweat on her tongue. The thrusts were still coming but more disjointed, out of rhythm, and inside her it felt like she was gripping him in a vice. Aspen dug her nails even harder into Ichiji’s skin, still to no effect, hands shaking and sliding on damp, hot skin. Beneath her, the lounge was so wet she slipped sideways each time her hips slammed back down. It was absolute bliss.

Without warning, Ichiji pulled fully out of Aspen with a slick noise, straightening up so abruptly that Aspen could not hold on and fell back hard onto the lounge, eyes blinking rapidly to find that her vision was still blurred and distorted. Aspen was trying to process what had happened when she heard drawn-out groans and felt something hot splattering her from collar to belly. 

Aspen, bewildered, humiliated, and thoroughly fucked, shut her eyes tightly again and put her hands over her face, trying to catch her breath. The smell in the room was now starting to make her feel sick. All at once, every part of her body hurt, feeling battered and sore - from her nipples to her thighs and from her neck to in between her legs, which was wet and swollen to the point where even closing her thighs tightly hurt her.

“Go clean yourself up.” Aspen still held her hands to her face and could not see Ichiji, but she could hear the quiet disgust in his voice. The lounge felt lighter suddenly as he got up and walked away, and then she was alone, naked and still drunk. So terribly drunk. Her body began to shake again, in a different manner than just a few moments ago.

Her heels had long since fallen off, and Aspen was able to slowly use the back of the lounge to pull herself into a standing position. Her stocking-clad feet sank into cold carpet, and the chilly air of the room against her sweaty skin was bitter. Long strands of black hair clung to her face and back where her skin was the most damp, triggering an uncomfortable itchy sensation. Slowly, she shuffled to her bathroom, hanging off of any furniture she could reach.

The bright lights of the bathroom, reflecting off of mirrors and white tile, nearly blinded Aspen as she flipped the switch. Quickly, she turned a small knob to set them as low as she could, leaving her barely able to navigate the overly-large room. The darkest setting was easier to manage, but she still felt as though her brain was pushing into the backs of her eyes. Leaning against cold tile, she limped into the part of the bathroom partitioned off with a toilet. She passed a handful of round mirrors, stuck to the tiled wall in a style that made them appear as bubbles, and she caught a distorted glimpse of purple-red bruises mottling pale flesh. Swiftly, Aspen looked away.

It felt like an eternity, dragging herself to the toilet, but somehow Aspen did it, leaning against the wall without bending her legs and shuffling her feet. When she reached the toilet, she let herself drop onto her knees, banging them hard against the cold floor. Grasping the sides of the toilet, she threw up violently. The wine somehow burned even worse coming up than it had going down, and Aspen could feel the aching pain in her head double as her eyes began to water. After a few heaves, she pulled back slightly to catch her breath, and made the mistake of looking down at herself. 

Her small nipples were deeply bruised, the miscoloring so dark it made them appear much larger at first glance. The insides of her thighs were similarly bruised, from just above her knees up - the knee that had been pinned against the back of the lounge sporting the darkest bruises. From just around her collarbone to her right around her navel, thick streams of come were beginning to dry on her skin. Stomach roiling, she shoved her face back into the toilet.

She threw up again, and again, and kept throwing up until she was certain she had nothing left in her. Unable to get back to her feet, she slumped to the floor, the cool tile soothing against her cheek. After a moment, she somehow was able to get back up, leaving the toilet and pulling herself into the closest shower. Aspen held onto the glass door for support as she stepped in, waving her hand at the knobs to start the water. Above her, water streamed out on full blast in frigid temperatures, stinging her skin like needles. Laying on her back and letting the water gush over her front, Aspen scrubbed and scratched hard at herself with her bare hands, until she was satisfied that everything Ichiji had left behind was gone.

Unsure how she’d managed to scrape herself off the bathroom floor, Aspen eventually found herself back in her bedroom, walking almost zombielike past the lounge where her underwear and wine had been discarded. The candles she’d lit had long since sputtered out, leaving melted wax in a puddle on the table’s polished surface. When she finally reached her too-tall bedframe, she leaned into it as she ripped off her stockings, leaving them tattered on the ground. As she tore at them, Aspen could feel her eyes beginning to sting and moisten.

 _“No,”_ Aspen was furious with herself. _“Don’t fucking cry. Who said you could cry over this? Wasn’t that what you wanted? Sure seemed like it. Stop crying. Get in bed. We don’t cry over this. We cry because we promised Nexus we wouldn’t kill Ichiji. Get. In. Bed.”_

Taking a deep breath to stop tears that felt determined to come, Aspen began the endless struggle of climbing into her bed. Normally, Drunk!Aspen didn’t bother, and slept on the lounge - but she couldn’t even stand the thought of looking at the lounge.

She hadn’t even given up on the first attempt when a hand grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her straight up off the floor. The feeling of deja-vu was immediate and horrifying, and it was then Aspen realized she had never actually heard Ichiji open the door and leave.

“That took you longer than it should have.” He dropped Aspen onto her bed directly beside him, half-heartedly throwing sheets and blankets over her. Paralyzed, Aspen laid with her eyes wide, feeling completely frozen. Every time she thought the humiliation was over, he always had something else up his sleeve. Ichiji glanced at her, unconcerned, and then laid back down, taking the pillow that had always been Sofi’s.

“Get out of my bed.” Aspen managed to deadpan, her voice emotionless and flat.

Ichiji laughed, and reached a hand over to Aspen, who yanked her head away from him, her stomach churning again. She turned onto her side, tucking the sheets around her in a cocoon she knew would be ineffective.

“Tsk. No, no, sweetling.” Yanked by her wrist again, she was pulled back against him, his other hand on her jaw, brushing his thumb against her skin lightly. His legs tangled against hers beneath the sheets, no matter how she tried to pull them away. He was smiling again, but his blue eyes held no warmth or affection for her. “Not at all part of the deal. A good fiancee would want to _cuddle_ after a passionate fuck like that.” He pulled her tightly against him, and Aspen felt every muscle in her body radiating pain as it was forced against his solid, unyielding frame. His skin was warm to the touch and, worse still, he had remained as naked as her. “I have to say, I don’t think I’ve ever had a woman practically _suck me in_ the way you did.”

“We are _not_ engaged.” A small distinction, but all Aspen had. He had no right to refer to her as his 'fiancee.' Her mouth twitched into a twisted frown, and she hoped he could pick up every ounce of loathing she had for him. He was even more terrible than she had anticipated. _“Why did I make that promise to Nexus?”_

“Ah, yes, thank you for reminding me…” He reached for Sofi’s nightstand, groping for something in the dark. When he turned back to Aspen he grabbed her left hand in his. Alarmed all over again, Aspen ripped her hand away as fast as she could - and found a ring jammed firmly onto a finger.

Even in the dark, it hurt Aspen to realize how beautiful it was. A large, brilliant stone sat center, flanked by two smaller ones. The band itself was delicate and thin, and she could feel textured detailing all along its length. When she pulled her hand closer to her face, she caught a glint of red off the main stone. Aspen had never seen a ring like it before.

“It’s a custom engagement ring.” Ichiji took her hand, admiring the ring himself. “It was the only option for the princess who will be my wife.” His voice was as soft and calm as ever, but no less cold and distant. “A beautiful princess - and that’s all that really matters about you in this arrangement. My father was _very_ insistent that I get that on your hand as quickly as possible.”

Hearing the words ‘engagement ring’ come out of Ichiji’s mouth made Aspen come dangerously close to vomiting on him. She turned away, again, and he pressed himself against her back in a spooning position, arm possessively over her. His massive size against hers emphasized her smallness, her weakness; the horrible, panicked feeling of being trapped gripped her at her core. Quickly and quietly, Aspen slid the ring off the first knuckle -

“Don’t you _dare_ take that ring off.” Ichiji hadn’t raised his voice in the slightest, but his tone was a clear threat.

Aspen slid the ring back down.

Making a satisfied sound, she felt him run his hand over the side of her body, moving over her small ribs, to a small waist, and back up over wide hips. He gave her ass a hard squeeze and Aspen flinched in pain. As he had earlier, he continued touching, grabbing, and squeezing - clearly liking what he felt, His arm pulled her back closer against him, and she could feel that he was getting hard again.

The humiliation was truly never-ending.

Ichiji bit at her earlobe “Get on your hands and knees.”

“No.”

“No?” The mocking voice she already hated so much was back. “The young duchess is right next door, isn’t she? I have no issue -”

Without a word, Aspen shakily got on her hands and knees, closing her eyes as she buried her face into her arms. From her tumble onto the bathroom floor, her knees hurt terribly, and her back was tight and tense. He wasted no time in getting behind her, pressing fingers against spots so sensitive that they ached. She could feel his thighs against the backs of hers, so warm and stiff. 

“Good _girl_ , sweetling. Ours may turn out to be a happy marriage after all.”


	16. MUSETTE IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- aw it's fluff feat. Yonji, just what everyone wanted

One of Musette’s favorite things about living in the palace, with the whole city of Snøvanger right on its doorstep, was being able to wake up early and do her shopping right as the shops opened. She would get up before sunrise, take her medicine, get bundled in her heavy coat, and catch the first trolley to from the stop down the road from the palace gates. There would rarely be anyone on board, save for some old people, and she could watch from the windows as the city woke up, scraping frost from their windows, opening their storefronts, getting the children off to school. The sidewalks were always free from snow - heated by some mechanism she didn’t understand, and it was the only time she had an opportunity to see them mostly clear of people. It felt just magical enough to Musette that she never minded being alone - she almost craved it. The morning after Germa’s first full day in the kingdom, though, she had guests.

“Did he _really_ need to come with us?” Aspen grumbled to Musette as she sat beside her on the trolley, eyeing Yonji unhappily. It was a rare instance of Aspen outside of the palace without being flanked by Priya or Anja - both of whom she’d likely slipped past. She was dressed in a thick coat the deepest peacock blue, her neck and the bottom part of her face almost fully obscured in a grey scarf. Her hair was a mess, as it was, and freefalled all over her shoulders. Slumped on the bench, arms folded with her hands up opposite sleeves, she looked like she had not slept well - and was in a foul mood.

Yonji, in a military-style dark green coat, sat just on Musette’s other side - and looked equally unhappy that _Aspen_ had tagged along. After getting him to bed the night before, Musette had expected that whatever brief chill had afflicted him would keep him down for a least a few extra hours in the morning - but no, he had been loitering around the hub first thing, and had technically gotten to Musette mere minutes before Aspen. “Why did you let _her_ come?” He growled at Musette.

Aspen heard him and bridled at his statement, straightening up slightly. “Let me remind you, _I_ am the fucking princess here. I go where I want with whomever I want.”

“Then go back to the palace. Musette is _my_ staffer. Aren’t you supposed to be with Ichiji anyway?”

“She is not on your staff - I have not in _any_ way approved your request to have and at this rate, I don’t think I will.”

There were only two other people on the trolley that morning aside from the driver - old women Musette saw on and off. She watched them both shift uncomfortably in their seats as Aspen and Yonji continued hurling unpleasantries at each other over her. Musette nestled deeper into her own coat and scarf, wishing she could disappear. Her gold hair stood out brightly against her red face, and she avoided making eye contact with the old ladies she could feel staring at her. _“I should’ve stayed in bed.”_

After what felt like an eternity, the trolley slowed, and pulled up along the curb in front of a specialty baking shop Musette adored. Its awning was striped pastel shades of pink, blue, and yellow, and the front window was decorated with a stylized rainbow of sprinkle varieties. The sign in the front door had been turned to ‘OPEN.’ She quickly hurried off, half hoping that Aspen and Yonji would be too distracted arguing to follow. Unfortunately, both of them came off right behind her, still at each other’s throats.

Inside, the shop was still empty and quiet. It was divided up into a maze of floor to ceiling shelved, heavily loaded with every manner of baking tool or accessory. The air was warm and smelled like fresh buttercream. Musette inhaled deeply, hugging her arms happily around herself. She hadn’t done _much_ proper baking, but now that her mother was gone, she planned to sneak back into their apartment and give it a few more tries. Maybe that could be her role in the kitchens, once she was older. Maybe, in time, she could make the best patisserie, better than Beurre’s even.

Yonji stuck his hand out at Musette, shaking her out of her reverie. “Where’s your list? I don’t intend for us to spend hours here.”

Musette, who loved doing precisely that, looked up at him guiltily before handing a small, folded list from her pockets.

“If this store is too _fwustwating_ for you,” Aspen called to Yonji in a baby voice from where she stood by the door, shaking snow from her hair. “Maybe you should _weave_.”

Truthfully, Aspen was being far more frustrating than Yonji - but Musette would never say as much to her. She sighed deeply, pretending to be interested in something in her pocket.

Beginning to seethe, Yonji angrily unfolded the list, and Musette could see the longing to slap Aspen in his narrowed blue eyes. “Unlike _you_ , _I_ am going to be fucking useful and get the things on this list. I have too many things I need Musette to do today to waste time here.”

“Do you even know what any of the things on that list _are?”_ Aspen challenged, sounding far too superior for someone who would likely not recognize any of the items listed either.

Yonji snorted dismissively at Aspen as he began to review the list. Item by item, Musette watched as his face clouded with confusion and irritation. “My lord,” Musette whispered, turning her back to Aspen and extending her hand to Yonji. “Please. I already know where everything is, just give me back the -”

He turned and walked off through the shelves, his broad shoulders barely fitting between the rows. A small bottle of vanilla emulsion - the first item on the list - was knocked to the ground by one of his arms, clacking on the wooden floors and rolling out of sight. Musette spotted the shopkeeper, in a flat hat and white jacket, try to sneak off, only to be immediately accosted from behind by Yonji. “YOU. COME HERE.”

Aspen sighed, sitting down on the edge of the front window display. “I thought he would never go away.” She made at face in the direction he’d just wandered off in.

“You know, he’s been relatively civil to me so far,” Musette could not help but feel frustrated with Aspen. It was her first day as a member (unofficially) of Yonji’s staff, and she was still nervous at the thought of being fully under his command. “So I would appreciate it if you didn’t go out of your way to antagonize him.”

“‘Relatively civil?’” Aspen, hands still tucked up into her sleeves, gave Musette a worried glance. “What has he done to you?”

Musette glanced around to make sure Yonji was well out of earshot before whispering to Aspen. “Nothing...just pinched my ass. I, uh. Threw water on him and yelled at him not to touch me.” Thinking back to the incident in the sauna was still _so_ awkward.

Aspen let out a cackle. “Perfect.”

“It is _not_.” Musette felt very anxious. Yonji had not mentioned the incident at all, but she wasn’t confident it would stay that way. Through the front window, Musette could see more and more people beginning to crowd the streets. It was probably best to get what she came from and get both Yonji and Aspen back to the palace before either of them could make a scene. 

“Did he do anything else?” Aspen did not specify, but Musette could tell from her tone precisely what she meant. 

“No,” Musette quickly assured her, setting a hand on her shoulder. “He hasn’t touched me since, except when I helped him get to bed last night. He was...very drunk.” On the whole, though, Yonji was being far nicer to her than he had been the day before, which had been spent mostly talking down to her and occasionally giving her a backhanded compliment. It was a peculiar change, but not one she minded.

Aspen relaxed slightly, following Musette into a row of shelves stacked with concentrated gel colors and pastes. “I see. That’s great to hear.”

Something did not seem right. “How did yesterday end up going for you?” Musette asked casually, pretending to inspect two tubes of different red colorings, watching Aspen out of the corner of her eye. “I hope Ichiji wasn’t awful to you.” The reception had been outright _weird_ to watch, at least for Musette. It had almost seemed like Aspen had warmed to Ichiji pretty quickly.

Aspen forced a laugh, and looked away. Her scarf slipped slightly, and Musette could see her neck was blotched with wide, dark bruising. A hand darted up to her scarf and yanked it back into place immediately. “He’s okay. Not very talkative.”

“That’s good to hear.” Aspen was lying, and it bothered her. Not long ago at all, Aspen had stepped up for Musette and now she was keeping her at arm’s length. She stared hard at the tubes, trying to seem casual and unconcerned. _“Maybe Sofi knows what’s up.”_

“You know, I uh, I think I’m gonna hit a few stores on my own.” Aspen said suddenly, turning away from Musette and pushing her hands further up her sleeves, scrunching the fabric. “You’ve got your hands full with the big guy.” She turned to leave, and stopped short. Aspen gave Musette a look she couldn’t read over her shoulder. “Do you want me to grant his request? To have you on his staff? I’ll say no if it’s what you want.”

Musette set the tubes back down on the shelves and thought for a moment. On the one hand, it meant having Yonji glued to her for six months. On the other hand, it was her best chance for staying away from the current kitchen staff. “If I say no, will it mean going back to my regular shifts?”

“Yeah. But saying yes means having to answer to that moron for the next few months.”

“I’ll do it. Grant the request.”

Aspen sighed, almost disappointedly. Musette wondered if she would’ve rubbed the denial in Yonji’s face. “Fine. You’ll...tell me if he tries anything with you, right?”

“Like what?” Musette asked, knowing again what was meant.

Aspen didn’t answer.

“Will you tell me if Ichiji does the same to you?”

Aspen walked away in the wrong direction from the door, disappearing sharply around a corner shelf. Even more concerned than before, Musette made her way to the back of the store to the counter, where Yonji, arms folded, was berating the cowering shopkeep.

“Why are you asking me these annoying questions? Your job is to get me what I asked you for.” He shoved the list at the shopkeep’s chest again, perhaps a bit harder than necessary. The older man stumbled backwards, coughing.

“Yes, my lord, but we have different types of butter emulsion,” he tried to explain to Yonji, who towered over him, clench-fisted and furious. “I wouldn’t want to give you -”

 _“Oh no.”_ It was the precise scenario Musette had wanted to avoid. “No, sir, pardon us, I’m so sorry.” Without thinking, Musette rushed forward and put her arms around Yonji’s arm, pulling him away from the counter. “I’m sorry, sir, I can handle this, you’ve been so helpful -”

Yonji gave Musette both a confused and frustrated look, but did not pull his arm out of hers. “He hasn’t helped at all, haven’t you been listening?”

The bell over the front door jingled. Musette did not know if it was Aspen finally leaving or someone else coming in, but she knew she had to head off Yonji either way before he got even angrier. “Please, my lord,” Musette calmly insisted, tugging again on his arm. He was unsurprisingly sturdy and inflexible, but she had to admit she enjoyed feeling the muscles in his arm. “Princess Aspen went back to the palace, so you and I can just -”

Musette’s plea was overshadowed by the sound of loud, angry bickering coming from the front of the store - and she easily picked out one of the voices as belonging to Aspen. She closed her eyes, holding onto Yonji still, who had not shaken her off. _“Why can’t my life be easy?”_

“All I’m saying is, if you have nothing better to do than wander around in this city anyway, you could take me along with you. My assistant is quite useless.” Musette knew she had heard the male voice before. But who was it?

“Do I look like a tour guide?” Aspen’s voice was full of spite - but sounded the closest to normal that Musette had heard all morning. “I want to be _alone_. I do not need another Vinsmoke hanging off my ankle like shackles.”

“You have no right to speak to _me_ in such a manner.” The other party sounded highly offended.

“I’m the fucking princess and I’ll speak to you however I feel like.” Aspen sounded quite offended herself.

Yonji turned around, looking towards the front of the store with Musette. “Is that Niji?”

 _“Oh, god.”_ So much for averting a scene. Yonji, now very interested in the loud argument, pulled his arm free from Musette and grabbed her by the hand instead, pulling her alongside him towards the loud yelling. But by the time they got up to the door, it seemed to all be over. Aspen was storming out the door, her hair streaming behind her as she slammed it. Through the storefront window, Musette watched her stomp off through the light flurry that had started, heading in the opposite direction of both the palace and the trolley stop. Other people, recognizing their princess, hopped out of her way, bowing deeply to her.

“Wait!” Yonji seemed very disappointed to have missed the fight. “What -”

Niji barely spared them a glance as he followed Aspen out the door, laughing. He started in the opposite direction from her, before catching himself and turning around. In a blur of blue, he had disappeared as well.

Musette did not like that at all. She felt a soft tug on her sleeve and saw the shopkeep, pressing a brown paper bag into her hands before disappearing again between the shelves. She sighed sadly, and led Yonji back out into the snow to the trolley stop. There was no way she could show her face in the shop for a few weeks. People gawked at the two of them as they passed, with several people crossing to the opposite side of the street. 

On the trolley ride back, Yonji was oddly silent, and Musette was keenly aware that the staring they had encountered on the street had not gone away. All kinds of locals, young and old, were watching them both. Arms folded and scowling, Yonji looked quite intimidating, and Musette kept her head down, wishing she had woken up early enough to go out alone. Thus far, at least to her, it appeared the Vinsmoke family was more of a headache than a group to be feared.

“Musette.”

“Yes, my lord,” she mumbled, hoping the people around them were not listening.

“You mentioned yesterday that you didn’t want me touching you.” He did not look at her, instead opting to stare straight ahead through the window. She could feel him watching out of the corner of his eye. “But I didn’t hear you protest when I held your hand.”

 _“Shit.”_ Musette had hoped it would have been a forgotten gesture. At that point, all of the people closest to them appeared to be trying very hard not to listen. “I don’t object, my lord.”

“Hmm. I’d like to be able to touch you like that,” he stated, fumbling over his words a bit, looking even slightly red. Musette had not seen him blush at any point until then. “Not at all as a regular thing,” he added, firmly. “I just...want to know that I could, if I wanted to.”

Anyone still left within earshot began eagerly scooting away.

Shaking her head, staring determinedly at the bag so Yonji could not see how much redder her face was growing, Musette quickly answered, “No, my lord. I can’t permit that in my capacity as your staffer. It would not be appropriate.” The trolley seemed to suddenly be taking an extra long time to get back to the palace.

“Why?” He was beginning to sound annoyed again, and Musette could feel him bristling next to her. “I _told_ you, since you’re on _my_ staff, _I_ get to decide -”

“Princess Aspen has STILL not approved your request!” Musette jerked her head back up to glare at him, as he frowned down at her. She did not mention that, technically, Aspen had already un-officially approved it. “And even if she had, many people in the palace would frown upon seeing me act in such a way with you.”

She thought back to the whispers and stares from the day before, by the other staffers going into the kitchens. If they were given any reason to think that she was servicing the visiting prince in... _that_ kind of a way, she would never hear the end of it. And then when her mother came back...but she didn’t want to think about that just yet. To boot, she couldn’t imagine Yonji’s siblings and father would want to see him getting cozy with someone of such low status.

Oddly, Yonji’s frown became a smug half-smile at that. “So, the issue is what everyone else would think. And not you being personally opposed.”

Musette’s mouth dried.

“Is that right?”

Blissfully, the trolley pulled up to the stop in front of the palace, and Musette hustled off even faster than she had earlier. She practically ran up the short road to the gate, clutching her bag so tightly that it had begun to rip. Yonji stayed close behind her, and Musette could feel him grinning at her - but it didn’t feel mean-spirited.

“Hello, Musette.” Mace was on post beside the front doors. Instead of his regular puffy coat and dark pants, someone had dug out a white uniform big enough to stretch over his massive build. His grey beard was as wild as ever, and he smile broadly at her from behind it. “And hello to you as well, Prince Yonji. You’re both in time for brunch?”

“Brunch?” Musette panicked for a moment, wondering if she had forgotten a previous engagement in her hurry to go out. She couldn’t recall any mention whatsoever of a brunch at any point. She unwrapped her scarf and took off her leather gloves as Mace led them into the palace. Inside the wide, decorated walls of the southern wing, Musette was hit by the smell of melted butter, maple syrup, and various sizzling breakfast meats. Her mouth began to water.

“Sign me the _fuck_ up.” Yonji pulled his jacket off, shoving it at the staffer who had been trying to take it from him. He looked like a little kid with how excited he was.

“Was this...a previously scheduled brunch?” Musette whispered to Mace nervously from behind a hand. There was a formal dinner tonight, not as big as the previous night’s welcome reception. And in a few more days there was something else. The next few months had something going on almost every day and night. But Musette could not recall any mention of brunch. The smell was thicker and more inviting the closer they got to the hub, and Musette found herself idly holding onto Yonji’s forearm to keep him from rushing ahead without her. Combined with the small snowflakes whisking past the high windows, the aura of the palace was almost magical.

Mace chuckled, sounding strained. His dark eyes looked unhappy. “No no, this was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I heard Prince Ichiji formally proposed to Princess Aspen last night in private, and she accepted. I believe he said she was speechless.”

Aspen being speechless did not strike Musette as a positive. She thought back to how Aspen had kept her hands tucked in her sleeves the entire time they had been together. If there was a ring, that certainly would have explained why.

Yonji was completely unconcerned, waving Mace off. “Yeah, yeah, my father’s been on his ass about that since before we got here. Where is brunch?”

Mace directed them to the glass dining room before departing without another word back to his post at the gate. Yonji, fully distracted by the call of food, practically dragged Musette into the dining room.

The dining room smelled amazing, with several large tables lined up at the wall laden with nearly every breakfast food you could think of. Yonji broke off happily and grabbed two plates, piling them both without so much as a greeting to the others who were already in attendance. Someone had taken the time to make everything look quite nice - with taper candles lit all along the table and a white lace tablecloth thrown over a solid, richly red one - but the mood was tense, and few people were talking.

Right off, Musette could see that Aspen was still out, as the chair directly to the left of Ichiji, seated at the center of the table, remained empty. Two seats sat empty on the other side of Ichiji, likely meant for his brothers. At one end of the table sat Judge Vinsmoke, silently and looking deeply unhappy. Nexus, with only a cup of coffee and a cigarette sat at the opposite end, with Sofi at his side. They were not talking either. 

Princess Reiju stood up, smiling at Musette. “Good morning, Musette. How are you? Have you had a good morning so far?”

“Me? Uh. Oh. I’m - ah - good.” Musette felt very awkward being the only person speaking, as all eyes shifted slowly onto her. Everyone was dressed nicely, save for Nexus in his lab coat and what looked like pajamas underneath, and she was still in her coat and holding her shopping bag. “Picked up a few things from the baking shop…”

“I helped!” Yonji volunteered, far louder than he really needed to be. Still bent over the food tables with two plates, he did not turn around.

Reiju looked surprised at that. “Oh, isn’t that...nice.” She was still smiling, but something seemed different, and Musette could’ve sworn she saw her eyes dart off towards Nexus. “I didn’t know Yonji had accompanied you. How was that?”

Before Musette could answer, Yonji came up behind her and gently kicked her in the back of the ankle, almost propelling her into Reiju, who put her arms out to catch her. When she caught herself and turned around, she could see he was carrying both plates. “Sit.”

“Okay….yes, my lord.” There were several seat by Nexus and Sofi (who was urgently waving her over), if he really insisted that she sit. Usually it was custom for a staffer to stand, but he did keep reminding her to do as _he_ said...

She had scarcely taken a step when he added, “With _me_.” He dropped into a chair two spaces over from Ichiji, who was looking angrier and angrier, leaving the remaining empty chair between the two of them. Yonji sat the second plate, loaded with pancakes and waffles and other sweet things Musette happened to love, in front of the empty space by Ichiji. “Niji isn’t here so you can take his spot.”

More than she had before, Musette felt everyone staring. At that moment, several members of the kitchen staff came in with large containers of coffee and juice, refilling the glasses around the table. Their stares at her were unkinder than the ones from Ichiji and his father. Reiju looked momentarily stunned. Musette’s eyes found Nexus, and he gave her an almost imperceptible nod.

Stiffly, Musette walked around the table to the seat originally intended for Niji. Before she could sit, Yonji got back up. “You should’ve given your coat to that servant when we got here,” he scolded her, bending over and unbuttoning her coat for her, with fingers nearly too large for the small, shiny buttons. It wasn’t completely out of some misplaced kindness - he took far more time than necessary to linger on her chest. When he pulled it off of her, he threw it at a staffer with a pitcher of orange juice. “Hang this up.”

Musette’s eye began to twitch as she finally sat down, not daring to look at the staffer who had taken her coat. Yonji indicated the plate he’d set down in front of her before diving right back into his own, acting as though he’d been starving. Very conscious of everyone still staring, she gingerly picked up her fork and took a bite of waffle, so as to not offend. It was warm and soaked in syrup, just the way she liked it. 

After she took a bite, the staffers that had come in to refill the serving trays all began whispering to each other, shooting looks at her over their shoulders. Ichiji, his father, and even Sofi did not seem any happier, with Sofi’s anger compounded by confusion as she remained at Nexus’s side. Reiju and Nexus were still looking at Yonji, apparently gobsmacked, who was still eating everything as noisily as possible. Musette could not recall a more awkward meal in recent memory.

Reiju, likely sensing her pain, finally spoke up again. “It’s a shame Princess Aspen has not arrived yet.”

Everyone’s attention shifted off of Musette, who breathed a small sigh of relief as she took a few more bites of waffle. Yonji had piled on as much butter and syrup as possible, and Musette was grateful for his excess. It was warm, sweet, and gooey.

“Ah, apologies,” Nexus’s voice was cool and cordial, but she could sense his ever-present tension and stress just beneath the surface. Musette couldn’t have imagined that it looked very good for him that Aspen was MIA. “I don’t have a clue as to her whereabouts -”

“We saw her,” Yonji interrupted, mouth still full of food. He gestured with his fork to Musette, who was horrified to feel everyone staring at her _again_. “Musette and I saw her. She came to the bakery store with us, she was a real bitch the whole time.”

“Why…” Ichiji finally spoke, his voice slow and unfriendly. “Was she with you two? And where is she now?”

Yonji shrugged, having contributed all that he had to say. “Don’t know. Don’t care.”

“She left before us,” Musette carefully volunteered, turning her head towards Ichiji but stopping short of making eye contact. He was far, far more intimidating than any of his siblings, and Musette’s pulse quickened even speaking to him. “She said she had to do some shopping of her own and she broke off shortly after we got to the shop.” Musette was not comfortable at all disclosing that Niji had been with her, and had gone after her - and it didn’t seem like information that would make the situation any better.

Ichiji did not respond, but Musette watched him grip his arms more tightly as they lay folded over her chest. She realized then that the plate in front of him was empty, and she hadn’t noticed him eating at all since she and Yonji had arrived.

“Oh yeah!” Yonji lifted his head from his plate again. “Yeah, that’s right, and she got in a fight with Niji. She left and he went after her.”

Musette bit down hard on her tongue to keep from yelling at Yonji to _shut the fuck up_.

Surprisingly, Judge seemed satisfied by that addition, and his chair groaned as he relaxed against it at his spot at the end of the table. He lifted his enormous mug to his face, and Musette could smell strong coffee. “That’s good. If she’s with Niji then she is in good hands. We can celebrate the engagement as part of dinner tonight.”

Nexus did not appear to share the sentiment that Aspen being with Niji equated to her being in good hands, from his face, but he calmly answered, “We can, yes.”

Brunch seemed to wrap up shortly after that, with staffers coming back in and clearing plates, starting with Judge and Nexus and then working their way around the table. One staffer made the mistake of pointedly leaving Musette’s relatively full plate in front of her, only for Yonji to stand up suddenly, grab them by the throat, and drag them back. He shoved their face towards the plate, getting syrup and butter in their hair. _“You forgot one,”_ he pointed out in a warning tone.

Reluctantly adding the plate to the top of the stack, the staffer shot Musette an evil glare once Yonji had looked away. At this rate, Musette would never be able to return to the kitchens - or perhaps regular life on the palace staff at all. There was no way people weren’t already talking about it, regardless of department. Worst of all, news of this was _certain_ to make its way to her mother in St. Santigaard.

Oddly, Nexus did not say a word about Yonji manhandling the staff, as he and Reiju were still just staring at him wordlessly. Ichiji was staring as well, but in a manner more furious and less baffled. One by one, though, all of them began to clear out, with still no sign of either Aspen or Niji. Their prolonged absence made Musette unhappy, and she fidgeted with he apron as she wondered what could have happened that they’d been gone so long. Aspen didn’t know Niji at all, and Musette didn’t think she’d be thrilled to have him following her. Maybe she had ditched him.

“Musette,” Sofi snuck up behind Musette, fingers tightly gripping the top of the chair. Her brown eyes were lined in copper, matching the clips in her curls. She looked antsy, and looked towards Ichiji, who was halfway out the door. “When you saw Aspen, did she -”

“Come, Musette.” Yonji took her by the hand and pulled her out of her chair and away before Sofi could finish her sentence. A look over her shoulder showed an upset Sofi, cradling her elbows in her hands as she watched her leave. Yonji led Musette past Nexus and his family, through the hub and back to the eastern wing, where he was staying. She knew exactly what he was about to tell her to do - it was the same sticking point they had argued about when she’d half-carried his heavily drunk self to bed the night before. “Now that you’re on my staff, you need to move all your things to a room over here near me.”

She didn’t bother to remind him, again, that Aspen had _still_ not officially granted the request in writing. “Yes, my lord.” The eastern wing was well-lit for a change; it seemed the earlier flurries had cleared up and left the sun shining brightly. Sunshine warming the walls and her skin was a rare treat.

Yonji stopped at a closed door in a different part of the corridor than where the rest of the staff rooms were, throwing it open without knocking. Inside, the room was bigger and more luxe than even Nexus’s guest room had been, albeit messy. It looked like the previous occupant had left in a hurry: the dresser drawers hung open, the bed was unmade, and some clothing had even been discarded on the carpeted floor.

“What the fuck is this?” Immediately, Yonji was furious, gripping the side of the doorframe. Musette watched as cracks trickled through the heavy wood from where he was squeezing. “This will be your room but first I need to get someone to clean this mess.”

“ _I_ will clean it, I’m still a regular staffer,” Musette reminded him, worried he would break the frame entirely. It seemed to be almost effortless to him. She gently squeezed the (far bigger) hand that held hers, in what she hoped was a calming way. “I’ll go get my things as you have instructed, and then I will clean this when I get back. And then,” Musette increased her volume slightly, seeing Yonji getting ready to interrupt her. “We can do whatever you would like until it’s time to prepare for dinner.”

He thought for a minute, his forehead creased in agitation. Musette could see the anger in his eyes slowly ebbing away. “Fine.” Turning, he reluctantly took his hand from hers. “I will find something to occupy myself in the meantime. But you had better hurry.”

And hurry Musette did, throwing her uniforms, shoes, and some other non-uniform clothes into an old backpack in her apartment. She put her few toiletries in the front pocket, along with the medicine her mother had left for her to take. Again, she did not bother locking the door. As she had predicted, word of brunch had spread quickly, and she noticed other staffers passing by giving her dirty looks and whispering to each other. When she had left the apartments and was nearly back to the eastern wing, she heard voices coming towards her from the direction of the southern wing.

“See, I’m not sure how ‘I want to be alone’ translated to ‘I want to spend hours in your company’ to you.” Aspen’s disembodied voice preceded her. “I would like now to try and get some _real_ alone time so _please_ fuck off.”

“You are quite an amusing princess, with quite the mouth.” Niji’s voice followed shortly after. “I’m certain my brother doesn’t appreciate it the way he should.”

“I’m not going to discuss your brother’s appreciation of my mouth with you.”

Niji laughed loudly. Their voices were getting closer, and Musette had the funny feeling that it would be better to remain unseen by either of them. Luckily, the closest door led to spare cleaning supplies, and she quickly ducked inside, clutching her backpack to her chest and leaving the door ajar to eavesdrop.

Aspen breezed past her first, her hair just as messy as when Musette had seen her last. “Do you irritate everyone this much, or have you singled me out?” Her voice was loud, but she didn’t seem particularly angry at all from what Musette could tell. She was still wearing her blue coat and scarf, but she had finally taken her hands out of her sleeves. On the left one, she wore a ring on her finger with a large ruby. 

_“Is that the engagement ring?”_ Musette had to catch herself from gasping out loud. The ring was beautiful. Maybe that was why Aspen had been speechless - if it was true.

Niji stopped short in front of her, both exceptionally taller and standing exceptionally close. His toggle-closure coat was only a touch darker than Aspen’s, and his scarf was the same as hers. “That’s no way to talk to your friend and guest.”

Musette raised an eyebrow at the word ‘friend.’ Aspen, it appeared, shared her sentiment. “You are no friend of mine, Niji Vinsmoke. I don’t need or want a friend like you - I’m sure you’re just _so_ disappointed.”

“And why is that?” His tone was irritatingly sly. “You think I’m trying to get in your good graces as a spy for my brother?”

“If I didn’t think that, I certainly do now.”

He laughed, and Aspen cringed slightly. “Ichiji doesn’t need me to spy for him, outside of the fact I have no reason or motivation to do so.”

“I don’t believe you at all.” Aspen’s expression was fierce as she stared him down. “I would appreciate it if you leave me alone now. I think you’ve tormented me enough.”

“For a price, maybe I will.” His eyes were fully obscured by the dark goggles that seem omnipresent, but his mouth pulled into a wide grin. He casually brought a black-gloved hand to Aspen’s face, brushing a lock of her hair behind her ear. Aspen’s stormy expression wavered, and she looked like she was starting to blush pink.

 _“What the hell is going on?”_ The whole exchange was getting _weird_ , fast. Musette continued to wait, half-standing, half-crouched inside the closet, holding her breath. It was a different weird than how she’d observed Aspen with Ichiji the night before. On the contrary, Aspen was acting the most like herself that Musette had seen her be in front of the guests. And that was _weird_.

“What price?” Aspen asked, undaunted and not looking away, cheeks fully flushed. She wasn’t frowning anymore, nor was she smiling. As Niji lowered his hand, he brushed his fingers against her hair, letting them fall past her shoulder on waves of black. 

The grin widened as he continued to stare at her. “A kiss seems fair.”

Aspen made a loud noise of frustration, throwing her arms up and stomping off to the northern wing. Laughing even louder still, Niji followed, raising his arms to rest his hands on the back of his head.

Musette still hadn’t the foggiest idea what to make of the exchange, other than that it made her more confused than she had already been. Once they were out of sight, she left the closet and tried to shake it off - he hadn’t threatened her or in any other way caused problems (at this point anyway), and all that mattered is that they were back in the palace now. _“Aspen seems to have things under control, I guess.”_ Hurrying, Musette ducked into the eastern wing, the earlier image of the bruises on Aspen’s neck fading from her mind.

On second look, her new room wasn’t as bad as Yonji had thought. After hanging up her clothes in the walk-in (!!!) closet, Musette had everything clean in no time at all. The drawers were pushed back and she’d set both the dirty bedsheets and the discarded laundry in a pile by the door. Once she’d touched base with Yonji, she’d just run it over to the laundry room herself and take care of it. _“I should make sure the bathroom isn’t a mess.”_ It had not occurred to her before that the bathroom could possibly be worse still.

Musette opened the bathroom door and immediately was hit in the face with a wall of steam. Perplexed, she stepped in further, and noticed the shower running. _“Is someone using my fucking shower?”_ On one hand, the bathroom seemed clean outside of the small spots where water had puddled on the floor. The glass door of the shower stall was closed, and it did indeed seem there was someone inside. _“On the other hand, there is someone_ **_using my fucking shower.”_ **

Directly across from Musette was an open door leading to another bedroom. She hadn’t even _considered_ the possibility of a shared bathroom, but it made sense for staffers. Sneaking past the shower quietly, she peeked into the other bedroom to see if it belonged to a staffer she was on good terms with - though she doubted many of those were left with all the rumors surrounding her swirling around. The bedroom was as big as hers, with clothes and other items strewn everywhere. One item in particular caught Musette’s eye: an oversized red cape than had been carelessly thrown over the bed. When she spotted it, she froze, right as the shower turned off and the stall door opened behind her.

“Musette?”

“Yonji?” Rapidly, and without thinking, Musette whirled around to find herself face to face with Yonji again, who was dripping wet, his green hair hanging almost to his shoulders, an expression of surprise on his face. He had not had time to grab a towel.

“I. Uh.” Musette’s brain jammed when she realized, worse than it had at all up to that point. _“Don’t look down,”_ she urged herself, focusing on his face, struggling not to look down. “I. Didn’t. I didn’t know. That we. That we share. Uh.”

She blinked, and her eyes shot down to his abs. And then further down, confirming private assumptions she’d made after their time in the sauna. “Holy shit.”

To her relief, Yonji laughed, and grabbed the towel that had been sitting folded on the marble counter. As he tied it around his waist, Musette wheeled away and hunched over, putting her hands over her face. She would never, ever be able to live it down. He would fire her, he would tell Espresso and Mocha why, and they would tell Aspen. “I’m sorry, my lord, I’m so sorry -”

Still laughing a bit, he walked past her into his bedroom, not bothering to close the door behind him as he pulled clean clothes out of a large trunk. Musette stayed staring, figuring she didn’t have much else to lose. Water from his hair dripped down his back, tracing bulk and raw strength that enthralled her. Even his brothers didn’t look like him - Musette could not wrap her head around it. “When there’s no one else around,” he spoke to her normally, as though they were out and about and she had not just seen him completely naked. “I don’t want you to call me ‘my lord.’”

“Yes, my lord,” Musette answered automatically, without meaning to be sassy.

He glanced over his shoulder at her as he pulled a shirt on, buttoning it.

Musette relaxed slightly, more confused than ever. “Yonji.”

“That’s better.”

It was better - it certainly felt better to Musette, who was starting to remember how to breathe again. “Yes.”

A grin from him. “Are you able to ‘accommodate’ that?”

She could have smacked him, but she opted not to push her luck. “Gladly my lor - Yonji.”


	17. SOFI IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Writing Sofi involves an awful lot of trying to remember what it's like to be a moody and indecisive teenager

Three weeks into the visit, and Sofi was sure she was going insane. She found herself spending more and more of her time laying in “her” room (whereas before, her room had been Aspen’s), on the floor, staring up at the vaulted ceiling. Trying to block out the noises coming from the room she and Aspen used to share. For the first few days, Sofi waited to see if anyone would come calling on her, but nobody did - not Nexus, not Musette, and certainly not Aspen. Every now and then, Jack would slip through the cracked door, purring and seeking attention, but he mostly stayed with Nexus now that his master was too busy for them both. Three weeks, and Sofi had scarcely seen the supposed love of her life for more than a couple minutes at a time - and never without Ichiji close behind.

Oh, but she had  certainly _heard_ Aspen, her and Ichiji together. In fact, Sofi had already lost count of how many times just that day that she’d had to plug her ears over the sounds coming from Aspen’s bedroom. Initially, Sofi had tolerated it, as much as she disliked it, completely sure it was an act - to convince everyone that the match was working, to prevent more intense scrutiny - but she didn’t know anymore. If it was, Aspen played her part too well, both in and out of her bedroom. It made her queasy to witness. After the first week, she didn’t even try to get her alone anymore. Not that Aspen noticed or cared. Sofi didn’t have a leg to stand on if she bothered to complain to Aspen. It wasn’t in violation of their deal. 

That particular day, Sofi had been reading one of the witchcraft books she’d swiped from Aspen a week before, while Aspen was - for a rare instance - alone in her room, playing the violin. That bothered Sofi as well; it sounded even sadder than her regular musical fare. She had been half-tempted to go in and say something when she heard Aspen’s door open and close, and the violin cut off abruptly. 

It was Ichiji, of course. And with him, Sofi knew what was coming next. She brought the book closer to her face, trying hard to concentrate on the peculiar recipe she had been trying to read for 15 minutes. The pages of the book were wispy-thin and ragged around the edges, and the text faded with age. “A pinch of basil…”

The heavy breathing in the other room began to get louder. “A pinch of basil…”

In no time at all, the mattress was creaking, and the headboard began slamming into the wall, echoing through most of the northern wing. The same sounds Sofi heard every night, though all of the night. It came through the pillow she wrapped around her head, so she’d resorted to ear plugs after the first few days. It was like they didn’t sleep, either. Inadvertently concentrating on the wrong thing, Sofi picked up some moaning - and it wasn’t Aspen. Switching back to the book, Sofi gripped its edges harder, the ridges of the cover beginning to cut into her fingertips. “A pinch of basil…”

The next line had a faded brown smear through it, making it nigh impossible to decipher - not that the recipe as a whole was easy reading. Rolling onto her back, Sofi held the book directly above her face, the clouded line at eye level. Under the smear, it looked as though some of the text had smeared from whatever moisture had been present. “A...la…” Sofi’s eyes raked over the line again and again, get more and more frustrated the longer she stared. Why had there ever been a time when people wrote exclusively in thin, loopy script? And who’d had the bright idea to publish books printed the same? 

More banging from Aspen’s room, and the moans were louder too. It seemed to Sofi that Ichiji  _ had _ to know she was listening - it felt like every sound was purposeful. His overall unpleasantness was something she was already used to, and Sofi retaliated against him in what little ways she could, as much as she dared. Unscrewing salt and pepper shakers. Sneaking into the laundry room to steal his clothes and throw them away (though, she had ended up stealing Goggles’s laundry instead, and it had caused a minor uproar). Using a nail file over the course of days to saw through one of the legs of his seat in the dining room. 

That had been her most thought-out and time consuming plot. When it had finally broken on him during breakfast one day, Sofi thought she would die laughing - and she was the only one. Nobody else had  _ dared _ \- and Aspen had looked as though she was going to be sick as she rushed to help him back up. Sofi had seethed for days. That was precisely the soft of thing Aspen would’ve laughed at. 

And it seemed every day following a jab from Sofi, Ichiji hit her where it hurt - with Aspen. The days directly following the chair incident were filled with more sounds than before from Aspen: moans, whimpering, crying out. Sofi didn’t know how it could be fun with how intense the noises seemed to be sometimes.

She could hear Aspen through the wall, muffled, whimpering and breathing heavily. “Stop it...stop,” she cut off at the end abruptly with a gasp and a quieter moan.

“A….ladle…” Sofi’s anger surged as she forced herself to look at the recipe, her vision tunneling slightly. Why was it so hard to read one recipe? “A ladle...of…”

“You’re  _ hurting me,” _ Aspen breathlessly insisted. “You’re hurting -” Again, she broke off, and Sofi could hear gasping, choking noises.

Snapping the book shut and throwing it at her the stupid, pointless chair sitting across the room, Sofi got to her feet. Grabbing her favorite pink sweater from the coat rack, she stormed out and slammed the bedroom door closed behind her. The noise echoed all the way down the hall, not at all discouraging Aspen or Ichiji - the banging and moaning didn’t even slow down. Sofi wanted to be anywhere else but the northern wing - where the show would assuredly continue all night after dinner. Stomach churning with anger and nausea, Sofi shook her head as she walked, curls flailing in every direction.  _ “How can she stand to let him touch her?” _

For a change, the palace hub was  _ slightly _ busier than it had been. A handful of guests had shown up for a formal dinner that night - though considerably smaller than the crowd that had been present for the welcome reception. Sofi watched from the top floor, over the railing, as staffers helped them with their bags. Automatic carts followed in rows, beeping, laden with suitcases, garment bags, and other guest items. They would be housed in a much lower level of the eastern wing than the Vinsmokes, and they would be gone by tomorrow. More and more, Sofi wished  _ she _ could be gone. But for her, that would mean being back in Åker, in the impossibly frigid north. Not even the  _ fun _ north, where the resorts were. And then she’d have to deal with  _ Saki _ . She wasn’t sure she was quite that desperate yet. Sofi leaned further over the railing, letting her arms dangle as she rested her head on her shoulder. 

“Are you the young Duchess Sofi Sanofi?” An unfamiliar voice asked from behind Sofi, startling her out of her thoughts of home. She turned to find a young woman who looked roughly the same age as her, Aspen, and Musette, with long gingery braids that hung to her elbows. Her face was heart-shaped and as pale as milk, with an oversized spray of freckles from forehead to what neck Sofi could see before her thick yellow scarf.

“I...am.” Her first evaluation: she was cute enough. Sofi, intrigued, leaned her back to the railing, trying not to think of sitting atop it with Aspen. “Are you a visitor?”

The ginger girl nodded, her smile showing dimples. “I arrived for dinner, but I have been extended an invitation to remain through the yule holidays.” She bowed low slowly, giving Sofi a brazen once-over as she dipped, pulling her eyes over every inch of her body. As she stood back up, she bit down on a fat, pink bottom lip. “We met quite some time ago, I am sure, but perhaps  _ too _ long ago. I am Marga Aadland, the young duchess of St. Santigaard.”

Her show of interest was not lost on Sofi, who had been starved of any such attention for far too long. She smiled back, wondering if she was not underdressed in her white pants and pink sweater. Marga was already dressed for dinner, wearing a a high-waisted gown of pale gold that accentuated a modestly curvy body. She was no Aspen, by any means, but Sofi had to admit liked what she was seeing. “Have you been to the palace before?”

“I wouldn’t mind being shown a thing or two. And with the  _ other _ royal guests prowling around, perhaps it’s safer we pair off.” Giggling, she extended a hand, gloved in gold as well, and Sofi reluctantly accepted with a pang of guilt. Her hand was dainty, and the glove was silky to the touch.

_ “I’m just holding her hand,”  _ Sofi assured herself. _ “Aspen is doing far worse with Ichiji right now.” _ Still, the guilt lingered the longer she led Marga’s hand, especially with Marga’s repeated longing gazes.

Sofi led Marga down the closest stairs to the lower levels, with Marga not letting go of Sofi’s hand no matter how many times Sofi laxed her grip. “I had the pleasure of meeting your parents recently,” she shared as they reached a mid-level of the hub. The circular floor was laid with lounge spots, art pieces, and a piano. The furniture was all upholstered in a deep silver fabric, and blown-glass light fixtures hung from the ceiling. Sofi had always thought the atmosphere was  _ chic _ , but Aspen had always said it was over-the-top. Sometimes, when they didn’t feel like going to the conservancy, they would practice here together - Sofi on piano and Aspen with her violin - with staffers stopping to listen to them. But thinking about that made her feel even more guilty, and sad too. “Lord Dagvard and Lady Sonia?”

“Oh! Yes.” Sofi hadn’t really thought of her parents in a goo bit, outside of their talks over a transponder every week or so. Her tall father who could not stop talking to save his life and her stern-faced mother (of whom Sofi was a small clone) who intimidated men and women alike, from grocers to Marines. “Do I need to apologize for whatever they said to you?”

Marga laughed, sounding warm and friendly. She rubbed her thumb over Sofi’s hand. “Oh, gods no. They were very polite. They told me all about you, staying in the palace.” Marga gave her a sneaky smile, and dropped her voice low. “About how you’re a very close confidant of the Princess Aspen.”

Sofi laughed nervously as she took Marga down another set of stairs on the other side of the room, these ones carpeted in red with gold railings.  _ “How many fucking times have I asked mom and dad not to just  _ **_volunteer_ ** _ that to people?” _ That Aspen and Sofi had been close friends since they were eight, that was true, but ‘close confidant’....well, yes, that was also true. But Sofi doubted it was safe to just say that to someone.  _ “Especially with those bird-headed weirdos that keep coming around...I heard they’re looking for Aspen, and I’d probably be a good place to start.” _

Coming up the stairs were staffers that Sofi recognized as working for Nexus, carrying large boxes filled to the edges with paperwork. The papers flapped precariously as they passed, looking ready to fly right out of the top. She recognized the letterhead of the royal research laboratory - Nexus’s other home. “Yeah I mean you could say Aspen and I are pretty close,” she answered off-handedly, wondering where Nexus himself had gone off too. He had been almost as scarce as Aspen.

“Mmm.” Marga squeezed her hand and gave her an affectionate smile that made her slightly jittery. “The princess is very lucky to have someone like you around. I’m surprised you aren’t at her side even now.”

Again she thought back to Aspen actively and loudly fucking Ichiji back in her room. “Well, you know, we’re still our own people and she’s been….busy with the other royal guests.” Sofi hoped Marga would not make her spell it out. It was clear most people were aware of what was going on with Aspen and Ichiji...but unlike Sofi, all the important people who  _ should _ have cared did not, and had taken to making light of it when they thought no one was listening. She had even overheard council members talking about it after a meeting a few days earlier, wondering how much longer until Aspen was pregnant, or if she already was.  _ That _ made her ill.

Marga seemed to pick up on Sofi’s subtext, and her smile flickered slightly. “I have to say, it is surprising to me how much Hoarfrost has rolled out the red carpet for...Germa. The sight of their fleet in the harbor was not something I was prepared to see, when I got off the train. To think there would have ever come a day when they’re allowed in with open arms…”

Sofi laughed, but did not tell Marga that the massive fleet she’d seen was supposedly not even a third of Germa as a whole. The thought of how Marga would react if she knew just  _ how _ much the council was rolling out the red carpet made her laugh internally. “Ha, yeah, well, Ichiji is marrying Aspen and all that, so, what can do you?” She realized then, as they approached the bottom of the stairs, that she was just absently leading Marga around with no destination in mind. Would the conservancy be interesting? She doubted it. Maybe the gardens. “What would you like to see?”

Smile returning in full force, Marga leaned in, her breath hot against Sofi’s skin. It smelled like peppermint. “If it’s just between us...do you have a way of sneaking out of the palace?”

“Sneaking out?” Sofi felt herself getting excited again. Aspen hadn’t bothered sneaking out in  _ years _ . She had argued there was no need for it - their comings and goings weren’t monitored as closely as they had been when they were children, and besides, where would they even go in the middle of the night away from the palace. “I, uh. I know a way or two.”

“Like, say if I wanted to go to one of those private lounges downtown…” Marga continued with a wink that made Sofi’s breathing catch slightly. “But I didn’t want anyone to see me leave and heading in that direction…”

“I’ve wanted to go to those lounges forever!” Aspen had shot Sofi down every time, calling them ‘sketchy’ and (rightfully) pointing out how much trouble they would be in if Priya or Anja caught them and then told Nexus. A handful of such places had popped up a few years earlier, and it didn’t seem like anyone in the palace could even tell her what they were. Which, of course, made her want to go even more.

“We could go together! That is, of course, if you want.” Marga looked away shyly, hand squeezing the railing of the stairs.

Immediately, Sofi’s thoughts were back on Aspen, and she felt guilty for even  _ considering _ such a thing. She didn’t even know this chick - and attention-starved or not, she was no substitute for Aspen. Even if Aspen was...doing things Sofi didn’t agree with.  _ “It’s not breaking our one rule, and she has to have her reasons” _ Sofi firmly reminded herself. To Marga, she reluctantly answered, “Maybe...but I can definitely show you a way out.” 

She turned back and led Marga back the way they’d just come, past the lounges and the piano, to the entrance of a lower level in the northern wing rarely used by anyone at all. All the walls were solid glass, endless windows stretching out. The floor was plain, unremarkable grey tile, and the corridor was free from the usual displays of art that the palace boasted nearly everywhere else. It felt like being inside a very long animal tank. “Disclaimer,” Sofi explained to Marga as she looked around in wonder at the view of the forest. “Neither Aspen nor I have any idea what this corridor is for.”

Marga seemed fully in awe at the thick forest, trunks crowded together and encased in ice as far as the eye could see. A few small, bright blue birds flew past, carrying pine needles in their beaks. “There’s a lot of tree cover over here, wow.”

“Exactly. Nobody can see you coming or going.” Sofi sounded awfully smug for an idea she knew was not her own. This secret escape route had been Aspen’s doing, her little discovery from when they were younger. They would sneak out and go sledding. “Look, here.”

At the far end of the corridor were two large double doors, also made of glass. The handles, carved out of wood to look like crescent moons and plated with gold, had thick, heavy chains wrapped over and over around them. Sofi’s face fell and she let out a groan of frustration when she spotted them. Those hadn’t been there before. “Oh, piss.”

Marga pouted, folding her arms over her petite chest. “That’s no good. How are we supposed to get out?”

Kneeling by the door, Sofi felt through the chains, the metal scratching against her hands, until she found a heavy lock. Rather than needing a key, there a fingerprint scanner in the center, with red and green indicator lights on its side. The red light was glowing brightly. Sofi sighed, and lightly banged her head against the door. “Mace or Dagger had to have put this here. I’m sure this is all over those weird crow-faced morons that keep skulking around. Fucking  _ awesome _ .” It was certainly not a lock Sofi could work on her own...but Aspen could. It would be nothing for her. Not that Sofi thought for a second she  _ would _ , if it was indeed to keep the bird people out. 

“Crow-faced morons?” Marga seemed very interested in that. She sat down next to Sofi, gathering her dress around her knees, her light blue eyes wide. “What do you mean?”

“Have you  _ seriously _ not heard?” Sofi was shocked. She had assumed that the guests were in any way in the know about those weird cultists - they were a hot topic among the staff, and they were constantly in the papers. Was St. Santigaard a backwater that didn’t get the news or something? “They’re a bunch of bird-masking wearing weirdos. Some serious occult fuckery. Security here has been really punched-up because they keep trying to get in for...some reason.” Sofi did not feel comfortable disclosing that they were after Aspen. That wasn’t a well-known fact. “Well, that, and because Germa is visiting…”

Strangely, Marga pulled away slightly from Sofi, her blonde eyebrows nearly disappearing into her hairline. Her face was a mask of mild offense. “Um, Sofi, I’m not sure where you heard any of  _ that _ , but that is certainly not a cult. It’s kind of fucked up that you’d even say that about our kingdom’s oldest religion.”

Her reaction made Sofi feel ashamed for having been even the slightest bit attracted to her. Aspen would’ve laughed at her and not let her live it down, ever. She gave Marga a disgusted look in return. “Oh yeah? What would you call it then, if it’s not a cult?”

“It’s our  _ tradition,” _ Marga stressed, clasping a hand over Sofi’s and shaking it hard for emphasis. Her hands were bigger than Aspen’s, but no less delicate on the whole, and the fabric of the gloves slipped against Sofi. “Hoarfrost has been going all in on new tech and scientific progress in the last twenty years, to try and keep up with Germa, but the old beliefs and the old arts have always been the true heart of this kingdom.”

_ “Old arts?” _ Skeptical, Sofi raised an eyebrow, leaning slightly away from Marga in case her crazy was contagious. “If it was only about traditional religious stuff then why does the army keep finding trashed towns everywhere these weirdos have been? If they’re the - what was it? - ‘true heart’ of this kingdom, why do they keep fighting this kingdom’s own army?” Sofi had stayed well-informed, even going as far as to eavesdrop on Gogo’s private conversations in her office, on the rare occasion she was back in the palace now. Her news was never good. The stories about whole towns and villages in Central Hoarfrost just disappearing whenever the cultists appeared were unsettling.

Marga sighed loudly, shaking her head and whipping around her braids. “The royal army is the one that keeps starting the fights. I’m sure you know that Hoarfrost is slated to fully merge with Germa when Aspen marries the Vinsmoke heir, right? It’s more than a marriage. What could  _ possibly _ be less desirable to Germa than people with a belief in something outside science and raw, brutal power? It’s more convenient to get rid of such people  _ before _ the merger.”

As much as Sofi was loathe to admit it, Marga had a point. Ichiji with his cold stares and distant demeanor. Goggles with his constant drinking and berating the staff. The green gorilla and...well, Sofi really didn’t know much about him outside of how much he enjoyed looking at Musette’s tits. Princess Reiju did not seem as cruel as her brothers, but she was part of Germa (and, of course, Germa 66, which the council still insisted was not real) same as they were - so it was likely she shared their beliefs. Her doubt must have been apparent on her face, because Marga continued excitedly.

“Germa originally conquered Hoarfrost over 200 years ago, and they occupied the entire kingdom for over 20 years in total,” Marga reminded Sofi, referencing a history lesson Sofi had likely slept through years ago. “Noelle Frostbane led the push to throw them out and they made her the first Frostbane queen - the silver queen. The Servants of the Silver Queen are driven to keep Germa  _ out _ of Hoarfrost - not inviting them in with open arms, as Princess Aspen has - and, ah,” Marga snickered, raising a hand to her mouth in a ladylike way. “Open legs, I hear.”

Sofi would not abide that, no matter how unhappy she was with Aspen. Pulling away hard from Marga, she turned up her nose as her face went red with anger. “That was  _ not _ Aspen’s call. She hates the whole lot of them.” 

But that wasn’t  _ precisely _ true either, Sofi felt. Aspen and Reiju were cordial enough - as were Sofi and Reiju, so she couldn’t hold that against her. The green gorilla and Aspen interacted mostly through bickering over Musette. She and Goggles engaged second most often, arguing over his mistreatment of the staff or nothing at all. It always seemed like he had some reason to be hanging around her, bothering her whenever Ichiji wasn’t around. Picking fights and being frustrating on purpose. Wherever Aspen was, he seemed to follow. Sofi disliked it.

And then of course, there was the matter of Aspen and Ichiji themselves. “Aspen doesn’t want to marry Ichiji Vinsmoke,” Sofi stated firmly. That was the solid truth and always had been, for years. Even still, Aspen was likely trying to figure a way out of the marriage.

Raising a thin eyebrow, Marga smirked. “She doesn’t want to marry him, but she spreads her legs for him whenever he snaps his fingers.”

Sofi didn’t know how Marga knew that, but she opened her mouth to argue all the same.

“If she wasn’t, you would be with her right now, wouldn’t you?” Marga’s smirk morphed into a sad smile, and she reached over to give Sofi a reassuring pat. Sofi pushed her hand away, angry still at her comments. “Your parents didn’t come right out and say it, but they made it...pretty clear what the real nature of your relationship with the princess was.”

“ _ Is _ ,” Sofi irritably corrected her, looking away and out into the woods. She could see movement in between trunks - likely moose, or some foxes. She couldn’t really get a good look.  _ “How many goddamn people did dad blab to?” _

Marga tried to touch a hand to Sofi’s cheek sympathetically, and Sofi shoved it away. 

“How can you stand it?” Marga asked, her voice quiet and sad as she pulled her hand back. “Any of it? You deserve better.”

“I think we need to head back.” Even through the thick trees, she noticed the sunlight beginning to wane. The thought of being surrounded by dark woods with no protection, separated by only a thin layer of glass, was an uncomfortable one. They hadn’t put thick chains and a lock around the door for no reason, after all. And - for once - Sofi’d had her fill of interacting with another person. “Dinner is probably soon. I need to get ready and so do you.”

Getting back to her feet, Marga gave her another sad, sympathetic look as she smoothed out her dress. “Thank you for taking the time to show me around. It was not my intent to offend you, but I do hope you will think about the things I said.” She extended her hand.

Sofi did not accept it. She didn’t want to think about any of it at all. “You’re welcome.”

Turning away awkwardly, Marga ran back ahead of Sofi, braids swinging wildly with her ungraceful run. Sofi hung back just until she was out of sight, watching. She was pretty enough, but definitely on the strange side. Too bad she’d decided to run her mouth about those cultists, and took those jabs at Aspen.  _ “Only I’m allowed to take shots at Aspen like that,” _ Sofi thought to herself, getting back to her feet.  _ “And maybe Musette. Sometimes. Mostly me.” _

As she made her way out of the lower northern wing and back to the lounge, she could hear the slow, sad sound of Aspen’s violin - the first time in ages she’d heard it outside of her room. She stood next to the railing, looking out over the hub with her back to Sofi, fully engrossed in her music. Her hair was loose and shiny all down her back, and she’d put on a long dress for dinner in a shade of sapphire dotted with small sparkles - a pleasant change after all the red and pink people had been putting her in. Even from across the room, Sofi could see fresh bruises on her neck, on the parts not covered by hair.

_ “Talk to her,”  _ Sofi urged herself, standing motionless in the doorway, listening to Aspen play. Her heart skipped a beat just watching her.  _ “Talk to her. Don’t just stand here. That red-haired nightmare is nowhere in sight.” _

Sofi took a step, and realized that while Ichiji was not around, someone else was. Just out of Aspen’s line of sight - but directly in Sofi’s - Goggles was sitting in one of the lounge chairs, turned towards Aspen. He hadn’t seemed to notice Sofi yet, he was so engrossed in Aspen. A tiny smile played on his lips, and he watched while sitting completely still, a glass of what looked like whiskey in his hand. Sofi wondered if Aspen had even the faintest idea he was there. Goggles was already dressed for dinner in a suit, but had kept on his headphones and goggles, unsurprisingly. Though she couldn’t see his eyes, it seemed to Sofi like he was watching Aspen closely - but it had a warmer feel to it than the way Ichiji always looked at her.

Ichiji showed up on the steps of the same golden stairs Sofi had taken Marga down earlier without a sound, and when Aspen glanced over and saw him, her playing broke off on a sour note. She set her violin and bow down in the case at her feet, closing it and rushing to his side, tripping on the bottom of her dress a few times. Sofi’s stomach knotted as she watched Aspen quickly take his arm and disappear with him down to dinner.  _ “It has to all be an act,” _ Sofi reminded herself, feeling more and more that it was no act at all.  _ “It has to be an act.” _

Once Aspen and Ichiji were gone, Goggles stood up abruptly, muttering angrily to himself as he brushed himself off and slammed his drink onto the closest table. He walked to where Aspen had left her violin case on the floor and picked it up before walking towards the stairs to the top level of the hub. Sofi noted that was also the way she needed to go - the way to the northern wing. Hanging back again, she let Goggles make his way up the stairs before slowly following, looking around for him.

At the top of the hub, Goggles was gone - he had vanished completely. Sofi did not see him in the northern wing either, even peeking down the auxiliary wings to see if he was lurking. Nothing. He was gone. And yet when Sofi peeked into Aspen’s room, out of curiosity more than anything, the violin case was set right on her nightstand with some books and a half-drank glass of wine. Sofi was completely at a loss to explain it. Goggles would have  _ had _ to have passed her at any point on the way to Aspen’s room and back. How had she not noticed him?

Confused and lonely once again, Sofi returned to her bedroom and began getting dressed for dinner. She had a white and black dress she’d worn for some other dinner a week previous; she saw no reason not to wear it again. The Vinsmokes all wore the same damn thing every night save for Reiju. As she was pulling her dress on, she spotted the book she had been messing with earlier still on the floor where she’d left it.

Old Arts...hadn’t Marga mentioned something about that? Sofi picked up the book and examined its battered cover, it’s uneven edges. Was it somehow connected to those creepy bird people? She sat down on the edge of the bed and flipped through it again. Towards the back of the book, a page that had been drawn on in all of its margins caught her eye. Someone had taken the time to painstakingly and accurately depict crows all over the page, from their wingtips to their feet. All of them had been drawn in flight, their wings spread and their beaks open. It seemed that particularly close attention had been paid to the eyes - no matter which way Sofi tilted the book, it felt like they were all staring at her.

In the very center of the page were only a few words, made even smaller by all the large crows that circled. Someone had copied over them, time and time again, making them darker and more pronounced than anything else Sofi had read in the book so far. Careful not to touch the drawings, out of fear of smudging or smearing them, Sofi pulled the book close to read the words. “Blackened, brought together. Guardians of darkest murder.”

_ "Oh, haha, crow puns.” _ Sofi rolled her eyes, but sat in silence for a minute, glancing to see if anything would happen. When nothing happened, she closed the book and sat it on the bed beside her.  _ “Aspen was right. This shit doesn’t work.” _

A sudden loud bang followed by the sound of breaking glass sent Sofi diving to the floor, covering her head and screaming curses. She recovered quickly, getting back to her feet and brushing off her dress. Turning to the windows, she looked to see what had caused the noise.

Against the center window was the largest, blackest crow Sofi had even seen. Its beak had pierced through a pane of glass, and the jagged edges had torn at it, leaving blood to trickle down both sides of the glass as it frantically struggled to free itself. Stumbling backwards towards the door, Sofi felt her heart beating faster.

“Okay…” She took a deep, stabilizing breath, leaning against her closed door. The crow’s struggling slowed, and then stopped. Beads of blood lazily dripped down the window, forming a small puddle on the windowsill. With the limited light from outside, it looked almost black. “Okay. Okay. That’s a really spooky coincidence and I hate it.”

Another loud sound like just the one before made Sofi cover her head with her arms and pancake flat to the wall. When she looked, there was another crow, stuck through the glass just like the other. This one had a crumpled wing that hung awkwardly beside it, moving with both the wing and what little movement the crow could muster on its own, tapping against the glass.

“Nope.” Sofi opened the door and saw herself out, making her way to dinner without shoes, jewelry, or anything else. It seemed Aspen had been wrong after all, and Sofi had wanted her to be right in the end.


	18. NEXUS V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- let's start this off with a feels trip  
> \- trying to tease out something with one of the brothers, not sure if it's working yet though

The sun was shining brightly through a window, in a way Nexus had not seen in years. His sister sat up in a hospital bed, her blue eyes filled with pride and sorrow. In her arms, pale and already wasting, she held four tiny babies with heads of red, blue, blonde, and green. All four were moving slowly, sleepily, as newborns always did. “How can the medicine not have helped?” Her voice was distorted, like he was hearing it underwater, and her words stung at his heart. “Do they look like monsters to you?”

Nexus blinked, and then he was walking through a hallway in a castle he had not been in for years. He could see the carpet down the center, the stone walls with their wainscoting at the bottom, the rain pounding against the windows - but it all felt like he was seeing it through a dirty filter. Each step he took seemed desperately loud, echoing through the empty halls before him as he walked on alone.

From somewhere ahead, around a corner he knew was there but could not see, he heard his brother-in-law’s voice, just as distorted as his sister’s had been. “It’s clear as day that you’ll be useless as a warrior in the future...I have no obligation to help you...and I see no worth in raising you either.” A chorus of children’s giggles and laughter followed, its pitch fluctuating wildly as it became more and more distorted.

Shaking his head hard, Nexus screwed his eyes shut. It felt like there was water in his ears, or he was underwater himself. When he opened his eyes, he was still in the castle, but in a separate hallway from before - in a time earlier than before. The whole scene was still clouded and out of focus to his eyes. He walked as though he were being pulled by a string tied at his core. Ahead, in a whole hallway of open doors, he saw a closed one. Immediately, Nexus knew when he was. As he passed that door, his legs stopped on their own.

“You will tell no one...not your mother...not your sister…” It was his brother-in-law’s voice, a hateful voice for a hateful man who treated the most precious things in his life without the slightest trace of love. “This is your fault...had you only been stronger, tried harder...you will not disappoint me further…”

Nexus heard faint, small whimpers - impossibly sad and helpless - cutting through the fog of the scene with surprising sharpness and clarity. Then there came a loud slap, followed by the thud of a small body hitting the wall.

“And _stop crying_. Vinsmokes do not cry.”

“Nexus?”

Gasping loudly, Nexus sat bolt upright at his office desk, breaking the bulb of the lamp he’d purchased to replace his old one. Glass shards rained down on his head, and he flailed confusedly, knocking down entire boxes of lab reports and sending papers fluttering in every direction. His sudden resurfacing from his dream scared the living daylights out of Aspen, who’d been shaking him awake and calling his name.

“Damn, Nexus, calm down.” Aspen had avoided the broken lamp by ducking out of the way, but now stood, blinking slowly and confusedly, in a sea of papers. Some of the papers were old reports, collected from previous years and the few months prior to visit, when he hadn’t had time to fully review them. Even more were progress reports generated in the month that his family had already been in the palace - valuable reports put together by both him and Reiju, on everything they had observed from Niji and Yonji.

“Sorry, Aspen, sorry,” Heart still pounding from his nightmare, Nexus dropped to his knees and quickly began stacking the papers, putting them in the closest file box. He’d carefully separated them all by date before bringing them over from his lab - and now they were jumbled. It would take him _ages_ to get them back in order. “I’m sorry. Had a bad dream.”

Aspen, already dressed for dinner in the pink lace dress that had originally been intended for the arrival ceremony, carefully got to her knees and started helping him collect papers. Her hair was in a tight braid, her diadem elegantly pinned on top of her head. She had a fruity aroma to her from the lotion she applied religiously, and it made her smell almost like a piece of candy. Nexus imagined the council was pulling out all the stops to make her look like a true princess. “Was it the one about being chased by a moose again?”

“Yes,” he lied, bracing himself to be smacked. She would see through that in an instant.

“I don’t blame you,” Aspen sympathized, handing him clumsily stacked reports. The dark circles under her eyes seemed more pronounced than they normally were - but then, she’d had a busy couple of weeks on her own. His presence at the palace had been needed less and less - at the urging of both Judge and the council - and so his work at the palace had taken a back seat to his research and ongoing treatment of his nephews. “Bramble-antlered moose are oversized bastards. Sofi’s afraid of them too.”

Nexus didn’t respond as he stood back up, sweeping broken glass off his desk as he set his reports back where they belonged. He’d had all the master copies brought to him - many of the reports had no backups. Sighing, he turned back to Aspen, who had stumbled away from his desk but still stood patiently in the middle of his office. Despite looking very elegant, her eyelids were drooping, and she was beginning to wobble slightly in place. 

“Are you…did you need something?” Nexus asked, realizing she had not told him why she was even there. It looked as though she were ready for bed and not dinner.

Shaking herself awake, Aspen yawned, stretching lace-sheathed arms to the ceiling. “I came to get you for dinner. This is more of a dinner _party_ and you _promised_ me you would come.” Upon closer inspection of her face, it looked as though someone had tried to de-emphasize just how frazzled and exhausted Aspen really was with a liberal application of makeup, but it didn’t seem to be helping. The dark circles defied all makeup, and the whites of her eyes were slightly bloodshot.. “I just...need you to come.”

Nexus couldn’t remember having agreed to such a thing, and he had work to do - and were it within his power, he would be escorting Aspen right to bed and not to some unimportant dinner party where she would be paraded around like a trophy. He turned back to his desk, feeling a tiny bit guilty for having let her handle so much on her own in the last few weeks - but then, she _was_ the princess. “I can’t, I really need to -” In the middle of his sentence, his mouth snapped shut, and his legs went rigid. Against his will, he could feel himself being dragged backwards across the floor as if by an invisible hand, out of his office and down the hall. 

Aspen followed, eyelids drooping shut again, holding an outstretched hand towards him as he was moved awkwardly away from his office. “I wasn’t fucking asking.” Her open hand trembled slightly as she yawned again, and Nexus ricocheted into a low section of ceiling, banging his head so hard he saw stars. “Sorry, sorry, I’m out of practice.” Sweeping her palm down, she overcorrected by accident and pancaked him into the floor. The impact, even though it was on carpeting, made his teeth clatter together. It was like when she was a child all over again, when she’d first awoken her abilities and had no idea how to control them. That era had been a painful one for Nexus, Gogo, and many staff members who had been compensated handsomely. 

“For the love of _god_ Aspen,” Nexus pleaded, very aware of just how many potential broken bones were at risk if she continued. “I’ll come along on my own, I promise. Stop using that, before someone sees us.”

“Do you promise?” Giving him a distrustful look, she started to close her hand into a fist. Air was rapidly forced out of Nexus’s lungs, and the force combined with years of stress-powered smoking resulted in a painfully raspy sound issuing forth.

“Yes I PROMISE now STOP.”

“Mm. Okay.” 

Nexus felt the invisible force letting go all at once, and his knees buckled as he collapsed to the floor. He threw his hands out and caught himself on all fours, gasping and struggling to recover. If he needed a reminder of just how old and out of shape he’d gotten, that was it. Behind him, Aspen leaned against a wall, beginning to fall asleep again as she stood. Her knees were slightly bent, and Nexus could make out bruises on them even in the limited light of the corridor. He couldn’t think of a time before when she had been quite so tired. _“At least nobody saw that.”_

Snickers from right around the corner quickly dashed those hopes. “I was wondering what those noises were…”

Using the wall to stand back up, Nexus looked over to see one of his nephews walking towards them, a cunning smile on his face. Niji had dressed for dinner in a suit that was a darker blue than his usual fare, with a matching tie and black shoes, though he’d chosen to forgo a cape for once. He looked every part of the prince he was - he’d gotten rid of the headphones, and Nexus was unsurprised to see that the goggles remained. Tilting his head, he studied Nexus before turning to Aspen in her formal dress and kitten heels, who was lightly snoozing, leaning fully into the wall. 

Nexus had the uneasy suspicion that she was using her telekinesis to remain upright - but he didn’t dare say anything in front of Niji, who already had a suspicious look on his face. He wasn’t exactly sure just how much Niji could have seen to begin with - and the last thing Nexus wanted was to clue him into something that had gone undetected.

“Ah, I fell down, no harm done, that’s all you heard. The princess was just helping me to dinner,” Nexus explained, rather lamely. Aspen had fully zonked out several feet away from where Nexus was sprawled on the floor. It would be a miracle if Niji believed a word of it. However, if he did notice, he said nothing at all. Scarcely acknowledging Nexus, Niji kept looking at Aspen, who had not moved or spoken, and was breathing quietly and evenly. He walked over to her and Nexus bit his tongue to keep from saying anything. Bending so closely that his face was right against hers, he poked her arm. “You.”

Aspen jumped, immediately awake, and recoiled when she realized that Niji was practically cheek to cheek with her. Flattening herself against the wall, her shimmering pink skirt poofed around her legs in an uncharacteristically sweet manner as she glared at him. He smiled at her in a way that showed all of his teeth, like a predator closing in on its prey. Nexus quickly wedged himself between them all while knowing full well if push came to shove, he was weaker than both of them and would promptly eat shit. “We can all go down to dinner together, there’s no need -”

“ _I’ll_ escort the princess to dinner.” Niji extended an arm to Aspen, who eyed it suspiciously. Nexus saw her right arm swing down to her hip, fingers flexing threateningly. He quickly covered her hand with his and pinned it to the wall. If Niji hadn’t noticed her telekinesis already, he would be hard pressed to remain oblivious if she blasted him down the hall. “I’m sure _you_ have other things to do.”

“If I wanted to be escorted to dinner by someone like you,” Aspen growled at him, all tiredness forgotten. “I would have asked. Go away.”

Niji’s smile morphed into a scowl, and he began grinding his teeth together.

“She’s just very tired.” Nexus shot a warning look to Aspen, who glowered at him defiantly. On the contrary, she was very much being herself. “It is _very nice_ of you to offer to escort her to dinner.”

Aspen gave Nexus a nasty look, but she accepted Niji’s gesture wordlessly, carefully linking her arm with his and resting her hand elegantly on his forearm. He could see the stones on her engagement ring catching the light in a very pretty way. They moved awkwardly from Nexus, due to their pronounced height difference, but seemed to find a balance as they made their way back down the hall. Aspen took a moment to shoot Nexus one last glare over her shoulder, and Nexus heard Niji talking to her. “So sorry you can’t avoid me forever.”

“Keep talking and I’m going to knock your fucking teeth down your throat.”

“You can’t talk to a friend like that.” Niji’s voice constricted, but it stayed relatively calm.

“You are _not_ my friend.”

Once they were out of earshot, Nexus limped back to his office, still feeling the pain from Aspen’s uncoordinated telekinesis. With so many classified lab reports in his office, leaving them behind an unlocked door made him nervous. Lately, it felt like his two eldest nephews were skulking around every corner whenever he found himself in the palace, and he still couldn’t work out if they recognized him or not. Reiju kept an eye on her brothers and father as best as she could, but Nexus didn’t feel right asking her to constantly be on babysitting duty. As it was, she was doing more than enough for him.

A month in, and still neither of them had officially worked out who had taken nearly two doses during the welcome reception - but both of them were leaning towards Yonji, who was never seen out of Musette’s company anymore. Anyone with eyes could see he was sweet towards her - as sweet as he was capable of being, anyway. He had taken to thanking people for things, holding doors for people, and other polite gestures that earned him disapproving looks from Judge. Nothing that would seem dramatic to a layman - but huge steps to Nexus and Reiju.

Niji, by Reiju’s measure, didn't seem to have changed at all: he was still verbally abusive towards the staff, disrespectful of palace customs, and overall just wholly unpleasant to be around - and he did make sure he was around whenever it was most inconvenient for everyone. The only odd behavior Reiju had noticed was a peculiar fixation on Aspen, popping up around her during the windows of time when she was not accompanied by Ichiji. That didn’t strike Nexus as too strange on the whole. She was the princess, official host, and his main combatant in impromptu screaming matches over his treatment of the staff - one of the only people unafraid to go head to head with him. A fixation seemed normal. 

Ichiji, as expected, had remained cold and distant. 

Inconveniently, the only hiccup in their missing dosage theory was Musette - a few days following the reception, Nexus had remembered that she had been tending to Yonji the entire time. When he approached her to ask what she could recall, she had been _adamant_ that Yonji had not taken Ichiji’s drink, containing his incomplete dose. 

“I would have seen him,” she had insisted to Nexus quietly in a hallway, looking over her shoulder for Yonji. “He didn’t do it. He wasn’t close enough at all. Prince Niji was right next to Prince Ichiji - it had to have been him.” Both Nexus and Reiju had to admit that would explain what Gogo had observed in Niji when escorting him to his room that night: heavy sweating, disorientation, chills. All the same, Niji wasn’t showing the remarkable progress that Yonji was- Musette had to have been mistaken.

 _“Yonji’s progress is more than I expected,”_ Nexus thought to himself, pocketing his office keys and making his way to dinner, cigarette in his mouth. _“That is a sign of good things to come in two years.”_ In two years, the antibodies would be fully matured and capable of completely reversing the emotional modifications. Ichiji sans emotional modifications was possibly more likely to free Aspen from the marriage agreement…and Nexus from a decade-long headache. His brother-in-law would be livid at the loss of Hoarfrost as an asset, unless Aspen were to miraculously fall in love with Ichiji and agree to marry him anyway. Even thinking about it made Nexus laugh to himself.

Dinner was a midway point between their usual quiet gatherings and the grand reception from a month ago. The only new guests were a handful of dukes and duchesses from all over the kingdom. Sofi’s family - the Sanofi family of Åker - was absent. A few high-ranking members of the military were also there, though Gogo was gone. It seemed as though there were more skirmishes breaking out between the royal army and the cultists - and it required her full attention. Nexus was disappointed to see that the council had come out in full force, all in matching dark grey suits. They looked like corpses that had broken out of the mausoleum. 

There was some dancing, but people were mostly eating at various tables or mingling in small groups. The smaller reception hall was already partially decorated for the impending Yule holiday - holly and evergreen decorated the cream and gold walls, and wreaths hung over every window. Tablecloths were silver and gold, and sprigs of mistletoe hung by the doorway. A banquet table towards the back was heavily laden with trays of seasonal desserts - gingerbread, marzipan, and other treats that soaked the air with delicious smells.

Nexus was not specifically sure what the point of this larger dinner was - outside of it serving as another attempt to showcase the kingdom’s opulence and wealth to Germa, and try to force the ruling class of Hoarfrost to come pay respects, in a way. It struck him as wasteful more than anything. As always, he enjoyed the palace’s string quartet enough, as he picked at his plate, but he felt he would’ve enjoyed them more had he not been seated at the table directly adjacent to their setup. 

“Could you maybe move?” Nexus finally asked between songs.

One of the violinists shook his head apologetically. “Can’t sir, both Espresso and Mocha asked that we remain over here. Our...honored guests did not want us too close.”

Of course they didn’t. Sighing, Nexus poked at his food, moving around cut green beans and prime cuts of meat. It was all delicious, and he had the stomach for none of it. He was still pushing it around with his fork when Sofi dropped into the chair beside him.

“I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” Sofi hissed in a conspiratorial whisper, looking around at the room. Her curls were adorned with jeweled clips in appropriate yule colors, and her strapless gown was a deep gold. She looked well-rested, certainly more so than Aspen had, but something about her felt off to Nexus. “Everyone here knows my parents. _Everyone_. You have any idea what it’s like trying to watch yourself for hours, knowing that one off-color joke is gonna make some overly-sensitive fuck call your mom? No. You have no idea.”

Nexus couldn’t help but laugh aloud, almost spitting out the water he’d sipped. “So sorry that you need to find something to talk about other than Aspen’s butt.” He had heard his fair share of complaints over the years of Sofi calling the palace home - nothing that wasn’t easily resolved with a single call to Åker. The Duchess Sonia Sanofi did not play. “It’s just for tonight.”

Sofi reached for Nexus’s water and drank the rest of it down before he could object, rolling her eyes at his statement. “Oh, just for tonight, _sure_. I could deal if I had Aspen with me, or Musette. Do you think I’ve had either of them lately? I’ve had to deal with some ginger trying to take Aspen’s place at my side and _probably_ in my bed...unless I have been reading her signals wrong.” She set the drink down, musing to herself. “Not sure how many ways I can misread her checking me out, but y’know…”

“You knew this visit was coming.” He wasn’t even going to touch her last remark. Nexus kept his voice low, not wanting to be overheard by the council or one of the Vinsmokes. For what it was worth, things had been going relatively smoothly - and it was easier for him if it stayed that way. He knew Judge was looking for a reason to sideline him completely. “Aspen and Ichiji are technically engaged now; she is obligated to accompany him. Musette is a staff member and she has to work.”

“Having to work doesn’t mean being with that green-haired jackass every hour of every day of the week,” Sofi complained, looking unhappily across the room towards where they were probably seated. Guests blocked the view. “She used to get weekends off. She hasn’t taken a single weekend off since she was put on his staff.” Sofi lowered her voice further as she switched from sounding frustrated to a more reasoned tone. “Then again, I mean, if she’s spending her nights and weekends _on his staff_ then I mean, good on her and all that…”

Nexus, who had taken a bite of steak, choked. “ _What_ did you just say?”

“Nothing.” Throwing him a sly look, Sofi stood up quickly and was gone. Before he could get up and try to get a better answer out of her, she was replaced by Reiju, who slipped into the chair and stayed facing mostly away from him.

“Aspen?” She asked, looking out towards the dancing guests and sipping at a champagne flute. Reiju was wearing a long gown of silver, accentuated with sparkles from floor to shoulder. It still blew him away how grown up she really was - and he was struck by a pang of sadness on having missed almost her entire childhood.

“Basically sleepwalking.” He was still stuck on Sofi’s comment about Musette even as Reiju asked after Aspen. Then the thoughts combined, and a revelation hit Nexus force of a bomb. He dropped his fork onto his dish with a clatter. He was such a fucking _idiot_ for not having thought of it before. “She looks like she hasn’t slept well. In a long time. Is that Ichiji’s doing?”

Reiju sighed. “Obviously.”

“How long?”

“He’s spent every night in her room since we got here,” Reiju murmured, sipping at her drink, looking disappointed in him for having taken so long to figure that out. “I have overheard Sofi Sanofi talking to her new friend about it. My brother has not taken steps to be subtle, it seems. He sees Aspen as his...to do with as he pleases. When he pleases.”

 _“I should have been found a better way to give him his dosage, why didn’t I have a better way to give him his_ **_fucking dosage?_ "** Nexus thought to himself, vacillating wildly between disgust for himself and disgust for his nephew. Aspen, regardless anything else, was the princess, and she sure as hell deserved better than being treated like that. And it was happening with a frequency that seemed to be massively disrupting her sleep schedule...the thought of it made him ill. _“Why hasn’t she said anything?”_ To Reiju, he urgently whispered, “Would Ichiji be even slightly discouraged if I were to set guards outside of Aspen’s door?”

Reiju raised an eyebrow, side-eyeing her uncle. “Is the ultimate goal for these guards to never be heard from or seen again?”

“You could have just said no.”

“The answer was _slightly more_ than just no.” Reiju looked out at the handful of people who were dancing and seemingly having a good time. Nexus had not bothered to introduce himself to anyone, though he had received many friendly waves from those who recognized him. “Again - he sees her as belonging to him now. It’s...well, I would almost say he’s behaving worse than what I have ever seen from him before. But that’s not what I came over to talk about. Where is she?”

Nexus’s fury and disgust came stuck for a moment, and he turned his whole head to Reiju as the quartet began an especially loud and energetic piece. The people who had been dancing shuffled around to make room for a few more. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, where is she? We’re almost an hour into this dinner and she’s not here. This is like the reception all over again.” Reiju nodded in the direction of her father, who was standing in a small group away from the rest of the guests with Nils, Torvig, and Ichiji. The council members were shaking their heads and making reassuring motions with their hands. Neither Judge nor Ichiji looked happy. “The last thing she told Ichiji was that she was going to get _you_.”

Nexus shook his head frantically, itching for a cigarette he knew he couldn’t have. Why did this keep happening to him? “No no, I - she came for me, yes but - I went back to my office and _Niji_ escorted her to dinner. She didn’t come with me.”

“What do you mean, Niji escorted her to dinner?” Reiju gave up on pretending she was not interacting with him, turning in her seat to give Nexus a confused look. As she set her glass down, an eager staffer appeared out of nowhere to fill it (and gawk at Reiju) and was swiftly waved away. “Niji didn’t come to dinner tonight. He said he wasn’t interested in rubbing shoulders with an endless parade of people he doesn’t give a shit about...or something to that extent. He said he wasn’t even hungry.”

“No, no, no.” Nexus had _seen_ him, dressed in a suit for dinner, walking off with Aspen holding onto his arm. He had _seen_ them, both of them. “He was wearing a dark blue suit -”

“ -He _only_ owns blue suits -”

“ -He said he was going to take Aspen to dinner -”

“ -They’re not here,” Reiju cut Nexus off with a nervous look down at her lap. “Ichiji is in a towering temper. My father is in a worse mood, and I’m sure you have no problem believing that. I wanted to let you know that you’re minutes away from being dragged out into the hall and ordered to find her.” With that, she grabbed her drink and quickly vanished, leaving Nexus in a mental whirlwind of disgust, fury, and confusion. Why would Niji, dressed for dinner, have said he was taking Aspen to dinner…only for them both to disappear? And Aspen had been reluctant to leave with him in the first place on top of that. Thinking about what could have happened made Nexus even more ill.

Reiju had been gone for only seconds when Nexus felt - rather than saw - Judge heading his way, an angry glare focused right on him. He quickly shoveled the rest of his food into his mouth, chewing slowly to buy time. Nexus knew he had no good answer, beyond pointing the finger at Niji, and that would likely make things worse. _“Where would he take her?”_

Unceremoniously, Judge yanked Nexus straight up out of his chair by the back of his suit jacket as he came right up behind him. A few feet off the ground, he dropped Nexus straight onto the floor. For the second time that evening, Nexus felt his knees buckle and he almost collapsed onto all fours again. Still eating, he slowed his chewing as much as he could stand, leaning the green beans and meat coalesce into a soggy lump in his mouth. 

“Where is she?” Judge thundered. At his side, hanging slightly behind him, was Ichiji, looking quite angry himself. Nils and Torvig were on either side, mouths pursed in displeasure, their waxy, corpse-like appearances exacerbated by the low lighting,

Nexus halved his chewing speed, pointing at his mouth. _“What do I tell them? All I can say was that she left with Niji.”_ If they wanted him to go find her, Nexus would do so gladly; he wasn’t sure what either of them could have possibly gotten up to. Nothing good, that was almost completely for certain. Ichiji had wasted no time staking a claim on Aspen, and Reiju had noticed Niji had a peculiar preoccupation with Aspen. Nexus would not put it past him to try something. And if that were the case, Aspen would have two options: fight back, or don’t. If she did, the whole palace would know. If she didn’t…

Familiar with Nexus’s old methods of stalling for time, Judge reached around and pounded a closed fist squarely between Nexus’s shoulders. All the food flew out of his mouth and splattered onto the floor, flecking the shoes of Nils and Torvig.

 _“Fuck,”_ Nexus thought to himself as his furious brother-in-law and nephew stepped in closer, closing in around him.

“Where is she?” Judge repeated, lowering his voice somewhat as a handful of guests passed by, glancing at them curiously as they munched on delicate hors d'oeuvres. Torvig turned and waved most of them off with what was supposed to be a pleasant expression - but succeeded only in attracting even more attention.

“Ask your son,” Nexus answered, coming off more casual and unconcerned than he thought he could convey with three words.

Ichiji took deep offense at that, and Nexus saw his face features darken with more anger. “ _I_ am the one asking _you_ where -”

“Not _you_. Niji. He intercepted Aspen and I after she came to get me from my office, and insisted that I permit _him_ to take her down to dinner.” Nexus lowered his voice as the current song ended, leaving a brief lull of silence in which he could be overheard. “So I advise you check with him before you rudely interrupt my meal and put your hands on me. I am the former regent and chief advisor to the princess.” He knew Judge would pick up his meaning: _I am not beholden to you any longer_.

Nils and Torvig muttered unhappily to each other. “Former regent or not,” Torvig muttered to Nexus, wringing his hands. “Chief advisor or not. You have a lot of nerve accusing one of the princes of absconding with Aspen.” They turned to Judge, bowing low. Nexus was sorely tempted to kick one or both of them in the ass. “We will go speak with the other council members here and see if we can’t find the princess. This will not do.” As they left, Nils shot Nexus a baleful look over his shoulder - quite rich from a man with bones as brittle as twigs.

Ichiji didn’t appear any happier with that answer, turning his head slowly towards his father. From the look on his face, it didn’t seem he had any trouble whatsoever believing that Niji would take off with Aspen. “Where is Niji? What would he have been doing with _my_ fiancee?”

“It doesn’t matter where he is,” Judge snorted dismissively, looking at Nexus like he longed to hit him again. His dark blue eyes narrowed. “He’s lying.”

“If I am lying, finding Niji and asking him what happened would prove that awfully quickly.” Nexus gave Judge a smirk he didn’t truly feel. He didn’t have to insist anything - if they wouldn’t go ask Niji, he would. The sooner he knew where Aspen was, the better. 

Ichiji turned around, ostensibly to go do just that, and stopped dead when he caught sight of the dancers. Turning his head to his father, Nexus could see he looked even more furious. “Are you seeing this? _What is he thinking?_ Why is he letting that _girl_ behave in a manner above her station?”

Judge, momentarily perplexed by Ichiji’s statement, turned around as well, and he too began to bluster angrily. Beneath his idiotic, ever-present helmet, his face was turning as red as a sunset. He stammered, stopping and starting, not quite getting out a full sentence. Now fully curious, Nexus peered around them, wondering what could’ve made their blood pressure spike in such a way.

It seemed Prince Yonji had decided to take a stab at dancing, bringing along a red-faced Musette, still in her work uniform. The other couples had slowed or stopped completely, staring at them interestedly, exchanging looks as though they could not quite believe what they were seeing. He seemed to be guiding Musette tenderly enough, and - for once - didn’t have eyes for anyone else but her. Just from watching, Nexus was on the same page as Judge, in a way - he couldn’t quite figure out what to say. _That_ level of success in just the preliminary testing of his antibodies was beyond what Nexus had anticipated. 

Unfortunately, such a leap in progress could not go ignored by Judge, who took a step in their direction. Reiju appeared in front of him, stopping him short, and Nexus quickly joined her, his arms down and slightly open. Ichiji had vanished - though it seemed he had chosen to disregard Musette and Yonji for the time being.

“Don’t make a scene,” Nexus quietly warned Judge as the quarter moved right into another song, slower than before. Still in shock, Nexus took a peek over his shoulder to see Yonji had pulled Musette even closer against him, and she appeared to be smiling despite her face still doing its best impression of a tomato. “You will only embarrass yourself.”

“You don’t tell me what to do,” Judge huffed. “ _Yonji_ is the one making a scene.”

Admittedly, even more people were beginning to gather around to watch Yonji and Musette together, but neither of them seemed to notice. Most of the stares were not unkind, aside from those of the staff members who had been working the event. The staff were shooting displeased glares at the two, angrily muttering back and forth while gesturing. He had seen a lot of that directed at Musette as of late, but was happy to see it was not bothering her. Nexus had overheard quite a bit of vitriol aimed at her on the occasion he was in the palace...

Reiju jumped in. “As distasteful as it is...is will make a good impression on the other guests here.” She subtly indicated the dukes and duchesses, who seemed more accepting and pleasantly surprised than the staff. “Perhaps this could be a way to make our presence in this kingdom easier for the ruling classes to swallow. We must use honey in this instance, father, and not vinegar. The way we make Hoarfrost part of Germa again is not through force...or a public display like that.”

Nexus had to hand it to Reiju - she certainly knew her father. Begrudgingly, Judge stepped back, turning away from Musette and Yonji like it was something vulgar. “I will let it slide this time.”

Unclenching, Nexus breathed a silent sigh of relief.

“ - But I will _not_ let Princess Aspen’s continuous disappearances slide any longer. Find her...or I will send Ichiji to find her.” He gave Nexus a significant look. “And what do you think will happen if I do that?”

“Haven’t you already?” Nexus gestured around them. Ichiji was nowhere to be seen any longer. He could feel his blood pressure beginning to skyrocket at the implied threat. “I do hope you weren’t just implying that Prince Ichiji would retaliate against Princess Aspen violently. All the dukes and duchesses present are loyal subjects that have known her royal highness since she was an infant. I can’t see them being thrilled with such a prospect.”

Judge snorted. “They’ll be Ichiji’s subjects soon enough as well.”

“They won’t be his subjects at all if he lays a finger on her in violence,” Nexus hissed. Reiju had slipped away as well, and Nexus prayed she was tailing her brother. “Fuck your contract. I’ll keep Aspen from him however I can, if I must.”

“I’m sure you’ll help her just as you helped Sora.” Judge turned and began walking away, not looking to see the pain that jolted across Nexus’s face as his words took the air from his lungs. “It’s almost sad to see you never learn. Find her before he does.”


	19. ASPEN V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- picking up where Nexus's chapter left off more or less  
> \- ah to be young and possess only bad judgement

“This isn’t dinner.” It was a little embarrassing to admit she had spent most of her walk with Niji with her eyes closed, but Aspen couldn’t conceal her surprise when she realized how far from dinner they were. The hallway they were in was empty and dim in every direction, the only illumination offered by the decorative candles for the Yule that were already adorning every window. Even the wall sconces had been covered to offer the candles a more dramatic lighting effect. Over the door that Niji had stopped in front of, there was a carved wolf gazing down at them. Aspen’s mouth went dry when she realized they were in the eastern wing; specifically, Niji’s bedroom.

Niji didn’t say anything as he turned the knob and pushed the door, which opened with a slow creak. “Get in.”

“Fuck no.” Aspen let go of his arm and took a large step back, her exhausted brain attempting to process her options. Ichiji and Niji were twins - that had to mean Niji was at least as strong as his older brother. She knew he was the faster one as well. As it was dinnertime, nobody else was likely to be in the eastern wing - not that there were people who would be able to help her in the first place. “No. _No_. I will not.”

Shrugging, Niji entered his bedroom alone, leaving Aspen in the hall. “If you’d like to catch up on your sleep out there - where my brother will almost _certainly_ find you - then you can be my guest.” The heavy oaken door began to swing shut behind him, and Aspen squeezed in before it could fully close.

“Sleep?” Sleep would be welcome more than anything. More than being hungry, Aspen was _tired_. Ichiji was relentless all hours of the day, pulling her into every empty office and closet, but it was somehow worse at night. He enjoyed waking her up right after she’d started to fall asleep - and it was getting to the point where Aspen was waking up to find herself in mid-use, Ichiji smiling down at her. It was maddening. The loss of sleep was making her slow, dulled, even a little _stupid_. Which was probably a welcome side effect - Ichiji did seem to like her better when she didn’t talk. It had crippled her plans for Yule considerably, and Aspen was desperately running out of time to put them into motion. She hung by the door, still not sure whether or not to believe a word out of Niji’s mouth.

“That is what I just said. Sleep. Now shut up and get ready for bed.”

In the relative dark of the bedroom, Niji stood by the foot of his bed, facing away from Aspen as he began to undress. Aspen felt herself starting to loosen up the slightest bit, and quickly tightened back up, wrapping her arms around herself. She had no reason at all to believe he was telling the truth. “You brought me here...to sleep?”

“I found you sleeping standing up, leaning against a wall.” His answer was dismissive as he removed his suit jacket, hanging it on the bedpost, and tossing his tie on the floor. Niji paused, and gave Aspen a look she couldn’t understand over his shoulder. “If Ichiji has pushed you to _that_ , I can’t imagine him letting up anytime soon…not that I blame him.” He flashed a lecherous grin at Aspen, though she found it more irritating than insidious. 

Aspen looked around the room. She hadn’t spent much time in the eastern wing ever, but she knew it was one of the palace’s oldest wings. Niji’s bedroom had been wallpapered in a dark blue color featuring the occasional narrow stripe of gold. The carpeting was a slightly darker shade, thick and soft, and the ceiling was a muted white with an ornate light fixture hanging down from the center. It looked quite nice, even considering how messy the room was, with clothes and other personal items strewn all over. 

Hanging back, Aspen leaned against the wall, hunching in on herself protectively. She didn’t know why she’d followed Niji in at all - he was nicer to her than Ichiji, though she knew “nicer” was not really the right word at all. _“I wonder if he’d be insulted if I accused him of trying to be nice?”_ Aspen thought as she watched him. He moved differently than Ichiji, who seemed to plan out every step, every swing of his arms. Niji’s motions were disjointed and messy as he undressed, mussing up his hair and scratching at the side of his face where the strap for his goggles was pulled tight, and felt more human on the whole. _“Is he trying to be nice at all, or is this something else?”_

Niji had become extremely fond of popping up whenever she had a moment away from his brother, and seemed to enjoy either instigating arguments or just behaving...oddly. Smirking at her, finding excuses to be in her presence with his shirt unbuttoned and exposing his bare skin, trying to offer her his half-eaten chocolate bars - all things that would’ve been uncomfortable from anyone else but were just _weird_ from him. Niji was certainly obnoxious and over-the-top but Aspen had not seen threatening behavior from him. Well..towards her, anyway. She could not speak to how the staff felt about him. _“If he was going to pull something,”_ she thought to herself, watching him take his shirt off. _“He would have done it already.”_

Brushing aside her theorizing on Niji’s intention, Aspen considered her options. Getting caught leaving Niji’s bedroom would look bad to Ichiji, regardless of the reason. Aspen didn’t want to think of how he would react if he saw her. It was a decently long walk back to the hub - plenty of time to be caught. Musette had to be staying nearby, ever since her appointment to Yonji’s staff, but Aspen didn’t have the slightest clue where. If she thought she could find Musette’s room in time, she would’ve booked it in an instant. But it was so dark, and most of the doors all looked the same - and she was so sluggish still, mentally and physically. The risk was too high. It looked like staying with Niji was the safe choice after all. 

“So why here?” She finally asked, relaxing a bit. If she _needed_ to, she could try to run - he was fast but she was quite fast herself..on a good day. If she could just get to the hub before he caught up, guests and staff members were _bound_ to notice. Niji wouldn’t endanger his reputation - his family’s reputation - publicly like that. That plan, while lacking in several aspects, was what Aspen settled on as she spoke to him again. “Why bring me to _your_ bedroom?”

“Why would I bring you to any other room?” He grumbled, balling up his shirt and tossing it onto the foot of the bed. Like his brother, he was well-built, though he seemed to be even more slim than Ichiji. Aspen still did not look away, but she could feel herself maybe starting to blush a bit. “As far as I’m aware, Ichiji doesn’t have a reason to look for you here. Get ready for bed.”

“And how the hell do I do that?” Aspen snapped resentfully. She gestured at herself, from her tightly-pinned tiara to the tulle-and-lace pink monstrosity she had been zipped into. Before leaving her room, she couldn’t even bear to look at her reflection - she could only imagine how stupid she looked. “All I have is what I’m wearing. It isn’t as though this was a planned sleepover on my part.” If Aspen could escape from Ichiji _anywhere_ , she would have preferred Sofi’s room, and Sofi’s bed. It wasn’t fucking fair.

She blinked, and suddenly Niji was right in front of her, wearing only his pants and holding the same shirt he’d taken off. Startled, Aspen took a step back and swung an arm out to hit him across the face. He easily ducked her blow and stopped her from backing further into the wall with an arm around her shoulders.

“Don’t touch -”

“Start by getting rid of _this_.” He handed her the shirt he was holding and moved his hand to her head, deftly pulling out pin after pin that anchored her crown. Aspen could feel the tension that had been tugging at her uncomfortably begin to lessen, and the pins fell to the floor around her. Niji was more gentle with it than she had ever been - frequently, she opted to rip the crown off, and painfully brush out the pins later. After a minute or two, he handed that to her as well, and then roughly snapped off the elastics that had bound her hair. They broke easily, sending the heavy waves exploding free. “That’s much better, isn’t it? Put the shirt on if you don’t want to wear the dress. I’m going to bed. You can sleep on the opposite side.”

“Oh, thanks, I always wanted to wear your dirty laundry.” Aspen set her crown on the floor with all the pins, shaking the shirt from its balled-up form. It looked clean enough and it smelled musky and spicy. The scent made her a little woozy. Still, she protested on principle. “I’m going to change in the bathroom. I’m not doing this in front of you.”

Sitting up in bed and still wearing those fucking goggles, Niji gave her his trademark shit-eating grin she’d grown so tired of already. “Why? Worried I’ll see something I’ve already seen before?”

Half-tempted to throw his shirt back at his face, Aspen turned away, grumbling angrily. She reached for the zipper down the back of her dress, pulling it down to the small of her back. The cold air in the bedroom sent tingles down her spine. Quickly and quietly, she pulled her arms from their sleeves and tugged her bra straps off her arms, slipping her arms into the sleeves of Niji’s shirt before letting the dress crumple at her feet. Her bra followed, and she stomped it down into the dress, where she had also left her shoes.

His shirt was much too big for her, reaching to her knees with the sleeves coming down over her hands. Aspen rolled the sleeves to her elbows and buttoned just enough buttons to keep herself decent before nervously walking over to the bed. The carpeting was more plush than what she had in her room, and it was soft against her sore feet. “I hope you’re not in bed naked,” Aspen snapped at him, stumbling towards the side of the bed opposite of where he lay. She didn’t look at Niji, but could feel him still grinning at her.

“I kept my shorts on but I’m sure you could easily persuade me to take them off.” Being alone with him, like this, was stupid and Aspen knew it. But she _desperately_ needed to sleep. She had important things in the wings that she needed to move on - and she couldn’t do that while only getting sleep in 15 minute increments. “But if that’s what you have in mind…”

“Not interested. At all.” His bed was easier to get into than her own, and she sank into its comfort. The blankets, sheets, and pillows all had the same smell as his shirt, and Aspen found it oddly soothing as she made a mountain of pillows between the two of them to form a barrier.

“It’s funny that you think pillows would stop me if I decided I wanted a taste of what Ichiji’s been enjoying for the last few weeks,” Niji said slowly, teasing Aspen as he sat up and watched her. Despite being almost completely stripped-down, the goggles remained. 

His comment made her skin prickle nervously. _“If he was going to try anything,”_ she reminded herself again as she lay down as close to the edge of the bed as she could, curled up tightly. _“He already would have.”_ To him, all she said was, “I’m still not interested.”

“Hmph.”

The warmth and softness of the bed felt like a cozy, safe nest, and Aspen started to fall asleep pretty quickly even considering the strangeness of the situation. She was almost fully so when he spoke again. “I wonder what someone would need to do to gain your trust.”

“Don’t be a member of your family, that’s step one.” Without evening opening her eyes, Aspen’s mouth shot off before she could stop herself. It wasn’t a lie. She could hear him huff next to her, and snap his jaw in offense.

“You’re so suspicious of me and I haven’t given you a reason to be,” he insisted angrily.

“Please refer back to step one.”

“Maybe you’re the one who needs to look at step one,” he growled, sounding as offended as she could have anticipated he’d be. That answer didn’t make any sense, but Aspen paid it no mind. His voice got so much deeper and huskier when he was angry. Aspen had to admit she’d grown fond of goading him. “You should _also_ think about how I still haven’t told my brother what I caught you doing the morning after the welcome reception.”

Aspen’s eyes flew back open as she slowly sat back up, propping herself up on her elbows and sinking further into the mattress. She remembered that morning well, trying to hang out with Musette, dealing with Yonji, and then getting stuck with Niji following her for hours. Before she’d stopped at the pharmacy, she had been _so sure_ she had lost him for a bit. “You didn’t catch me doing anything.”

“So you’re not taking any kind of medication? Maybe even something to keep my brother from impregnating you?” To Niji’s credit, he didn’t sound thrilled with the idea. “Which, if what I’ve overheard is true, is something both your people and my family would be _very_ interested in -”

“No people of mine would be interested in something like that!” Aspen hissed back in denial, Gogo’s betrayal still burning her to her core. Trying to protect herself was hard enough without a baby - and the prospect of staring down immediate enactment of the marriage agreement was a worst-case scenario. “If you tell Ichiji, I will -”

“I haven’t told him yet, have I? Because we’re _friends.”_ Mid-snicker, his grin suddenly disappeared, and he whipped his head towards the bedroom door. Aspen, tilting her head, opened her mouth to say something and Niji’s hand clasped firmly over it. With his other hand, he pressed a finger to his lips. As he did it there was a loud knock at the door.

Niji shoved Aspen down hard before pulling his hand away, throwing the blankets all over her as he got out of bed. Laying completely still and scarcely breathing, Aspen listened as he flung open the door so hard that it slammed into the wall, shaking the room. “What do you want?”

“You know what I want.” To Aspen’s horror, she heard Ichiji’s voice, icy and calm. He had come right there to look for her after all. “What have you done with my fiancee? She’s not _your_ plaything.”

“The princess? I escorted that whiny fiancee of yours to dinner and then I came back here to go to bed.” Niji lied effortlessly, sounding irritated that he was being bothered. Aspen hoped his facial expressions were just as convincing.

“Escorted her to dinner? That’s what that haggard advisor said too.” Aspen cursed herself silently. She hadn’t even considered that Nexus would tell Ichiji anything, and she doubted Niji had either. “I thought -”

“I _briefly_ considered going to dinner, until I caught wind of the obnoxious company we were expected to chum around with,” he cut Ichiji off mid-sentence, something Aspen couldn’t do without swift retaliation. “So I dropped the princess at the door and then - as I just fucking told you - I came back here.”

In the hall, Aspen could hear footsteps, and more people joined Ichiji outside the door. She recognized Nexus from his wheezing breaths as one of the people who’d come. “My full apologies, my lord.” He sounded very worried and very tired. Aspen felt bad for putting him in his current position. “It seems Princess Aspen has pulled another one of her vanishing acts. I just wanted to see if you -”

“As I _just told my brother_ ,” Niji snapped, the anger in his voice reaching new heights. Aspen could just picture the look on his face, and would’ve been tempted to laugh in any other situation. “I escorted the princess to dinner, decided once again that I would rather sleep than attend myself, and I _came back here._ I did not stick around to babysit her. If you can’t keep tabs on your own bratty princess -”

 _"Bratty?”_ Aspen took umbrage with that. 

“ - That is not my fucking concern.”

“Maybe we should search your room just to make sure.” Ichiji’s suggestion made Aspen’s blood run cold. The prospect of him catching her leaving Niji’s room had already been one she dreaded. But the thought of him finding her in his bed, wearing his clothes...was worse still. 

“Take one step in my private quarters and I will pull your arms from their shoulders,” Niji promised his brother.

Aspen’s lungs were beginning to burn from holding her breath for so long beneath the blankets. This was the first place she’d felt relatively safe in weeks. Ichiji and Nexus were about to completely ruin it. It was more motivation than ever for her Yule plans - she needed to get away from the palace, and all of them. Quickly.

“Niji,” Reiju’s voice, calmer than the others, spoke up. “Father will be unhappy if he thinks you’re standing in the way of Aspen being returned safely back to Ichiji.”

 _That_ was hilarious, and Aspen’s eyes watered from the strain of trying not to laugh. Niji laughed loudly for them both. “Ah, because he keeps her so safe all night and day. Look at how beside himself with concern he is, even right now. I will _not_ allow any of you into my room -”

Aspen closed her eyes, slowly unclenching muscles she didn’t realize she had been tensing to begin with.

“ - But I’ll open the door and turn the light on so you can see for yourself that your _precious_ fiancee is not here.”

 _“My dress,”_ Aspen remembered, panicked. _“My crown.”_ She had no way of warning Niji.

With a creak, the door swung open, and Aspen could see light through the sheets and blankets. She didn’t budge. She didn’t breathe. Nobody else spoke either, and Aspen braced herself for Ichiji to drag her by her hair out of his brother’s bed. Then she would almost certainly have to break her promise to Nexus, to prevent the retaliation she would definitely face from Ichiji.

“Are you all satisfied?” Niji sounded beyond furious.

“Yes,” Nexus answered slowly and quietly. Aspen did not like that voice - that was his suspicious voice ( _“What did he notice?”_ Aspen wondered, shoulders aching from being tensed in such an awkward position. _“Did Niji slip up?”)_. “We didn’t mean to -”

The door slammed shut and Aspen heard Niji stomp back, coming around to Aspen’s side of the bed. He yanked the covers off of her and began to climb back in on top of her, his warm skin pressing into hers and one hand grabbing her waist. Before she could utter a single protest, his other hand was on her mouth, and he nodded at the closed door. Aspen immediately understood: they were still there, listening. She bit down over her lips and slowly scooted to the side to make room for Niji, who moved slowly over her and laid down on his back at her side.

Laying down as they were, Aspen was better able to get a feel for his body compared to his brother. His size, closeness, and body heat were a strange comfort to Aspen, whereas Ichiji’s size against hers was oppressive and suffocating. Despite having been standing in the cold bedroom practically naked, he was warm to the touch, and Aspen did not pull away as she felt him closer against her skin as he sank into the bed.

After an eternity, he uncovered her mouth and dropped his hand. “They were listening.”

“I figured.” How was he so warm? Aspen rolled onto her side, facing him. He made to move back to the side of the bed where he’d been before - but Aspen found herself grasping his arm and pulling him back to her, surprising herself. To her relief, he said nothing, and stayed by her side. “My dress, though? My crown?”

“Under the bed.”

“How? When?”

He scoffed, not unkindly. “We both know how fast I am.”

Aspen had only seen glimpses, but enough to know. She had no response.

“Do you trust me now?” He asked, after a moment. The atmosphere in the room was more peculiar than it had been before he’d gotten out of bed. Aspen likened it to a filmy electric feeling on her skin, but it didn’t feel like a negative thing. She had no answer for him, and countered with another question of her own.

“Why do you want me to trust you so badly?”

Niji didn’t answer her. Aspen tried a different question. “Why did you help me in the first place?”

“Do you know how pathetic it is to see someone sleeping standing up, or falling asleep at meals? Acting jumpy all the time?” Niji didn’t mince words, and Aspen easily picked up the disdain in his voice. “That doesn’t suit you. You’re nowhere near as fun to be around when you’re exhausted. I wanted to see if a night away from Ichiji would change things.”

Aspen wanted to argue against his evaluation of ‘pathetic,’ but she knew he was right. She didn’t have to like it, but she knew he was right. Pouting slightly, she asked, “And your verdict so far?”

He chuckled, and Aspen felt him putting an arm around her that she didn’t feel compelled to push away. “You don’t seem as pathetic as before.”

Aspen’s temper flared again and she pushed herself up, glaring at him as he lay, almost completely naked, grinning at her. “I am not fucking pathetic at all,” she raged, struggling to keep her voice down. Being overheard by a staffer at this juncture would be especially bitter. “I would have handled your brother a long time ago but I made a promise to Nexus - my _haggard_ advisor.” That was another rude evaluation from the Vinsmoke brothers that was still stingingly accurate.

“Ichiji is a powerfully modified human and _you_ are a regular girl...albeit a fierce one.” He reached for the buttons on the shirt she wore, and undid one at her chest before she slapped his hand away. “What is it you would have done to ‘handle’ him?”

Aspen laid back down, turning back away from him. If she told Niji, then the promise she made to Nexus would be moot. He would most certainly run and tell Ichiji and his father. And she had _not_ let herself be turned into a toy for Ichiji for the last several weeks just to ruin everything by telling Niji. “I would’ve found a way,” Aspen lied, trying to find a convincing explanation. “I’m a princess. This is my kingdom. He’d be dealt with. I have powers.”

“Powers? The same ones that shook the entire room during our welcome reception?” His tone was teasing again, but she could tell his words were serious. Aspen’s stomach twisted itself into knots as she turned and propped herself back up to look at him, her eyes searching for any trace of his behind his goggles. “Which I’m guessing is the same power that let you drop from the tallest floor in this palace directly on top of me with no injuries…and at such a low speed for how far you fell. Oh, and I would be remiss not to mention your little display with that advisor of yours tonight, ragdolling him around the hallway. I think that was my favorite little show so far.”

Aspen did not even know how to react. It had been a month, and a better showing of keeping her powers secret than she had thought she’d be capable of. Ichiji, as far as she could tell, suspected nothing. The rest of his siblings had seemed equally oblivious (though she worried not at all about Yonji, who couldn’t hold a conversation anymore if it wasn’t with Musette’s chest). Niji had been the one wildcard she’d wondered about on and off. And it seemed she had been right to worry all along. She didn’t even know how Nexus would respond, or even how _she_ would respond once Niji told his family. There was no plan for this.

Niji must’ve known precisely what she was thinking, and he trailed a hand along her cheek, smiling. “Oh, don’t worry, I’ll keep your secret -”

“For a price?” Aspen thought back to one of the first conversations they’d ever had. She was well aware of Niji’s price, and the thought of it exasperated her. Having to kiss one Vinsmoke was terrible enough, but two…she couldn’t imagine Sofi’s reaction. Aspen could barely justify it to herself. _“Are you a princess or a plaything?”_

He looked surprised, and started laughing again. “Ah, right. You’re _sharp._ Ichiji must truly love that. I think I may have told your friend what a poor match you are for him. And speaking of that friend - wouldn’t this piss her off?” Niji laughed harder. “She already doesn’t like me.”

Aspen’s face burned red at his mention of Sofi. “Our deal is men don’t count. Only other women.” Even though it was not _expressly_ in violation of their agreement, she had the feeling Sofi would still be extremely unhappy if she knew where Aspen was and what she was about to do. “Do you want your fucking kiss? Or would you rather keep insulting me?” Despite being so underdressed, Aspen could feel her body heating up from the indignity. Her match with Ichiji was hard enough to bear without his own family telling her she wasn’t good enough for him.

“I’m obviously going to capitalize on this before you change your mind.” He turned from his back onto his side, facing her. Aspen had never been at face level with him before, and experiencing it this closely made the weird electric feeling grow stronger on her skin. Niji had a lot of the same facial features as Ichiji - to be expected, of course - but they suited him more. His jawline was strong, and he was clean-shaven. His skin smelled like the same spice as his shirt. When she caught the scent of it, she stopped short, beginning to tremble the slightest bit. 

_“What am I doing?”_ Aspen thought to herself, wracked with anxiety. _“This is fucking stupid. This secret isn’t worth it. They’re going to find out eventually.”_

When she didn’t move, he touched her gently at the section of collarbone exposed at the unbuttoned section of shirt. His fingers made her skin tingle, and Aspen felt guilty for liking the sensation. “Change your mind already?”

“No,” Aspen shot back defensively. It was only a kiss, and he _had_ hidden her from Ichiji. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

“Then kiss me, Aspen Frostbane.”

 _“Ugh.”_ Screwing her eyes tightly shut, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his.

In a single instant, she felt her lungs drawing in a deep, sharp breath, and then ceasing to work entirely. Her hands, previously held together in front of her, shot up to Niji’s head and her fingers tangled tightly in his hair. He yanked her closer than before with an arm around her waist, the other holding her at the back of her head. 

Aspen came up for air for the briefest moment before diving back in, pressing herself even harder against him, her mouth opening against his. In response to her eager motions, he rocked onto his back, pulling her on top. His tongue pressed into her mouth and she pressed hers back, clutching at him tighter still. Her hair was hanging down, sweeping over her shoulders from the motion, and Niji grabbed it and held it back with a tight fist as he kissed Aspen back harder. 

When they finally broke from each other, Aspen realized she could feel her heartbeat hammering in every part of her body and she was completely breathless. Despite having had nothing to drink at all in days, her head was dizzy and spinning. _“What just happened?”_ Aspen hadn't wanted anyone to touch her in weeks - not even herself. And she had just gone from a kiss to all but throwing herself at him. _"What is wrong with me?"_

For his part, Niji looked equally surprised and out of breath, lacking any kind of smartass remark. Aspen sat up on him and slid back slowly, trying to assess what the hell had happened while suppressing the voracious urge to pick up where they'd just left off. As she adjusted her position on top of him, she could feel not just how rapidly his heart was beating, but that he’d gone fully hard in that instant. Her face found a way to turn an even deeper shade of red, and she quickly climbed off. Aspen laid on her side against him, facing him, hoping that the darkness of the room would conceal her deep blush.

As he struggled to speak or breathe, Aspen could see that Niji’s face was equally flushed. “You’re going to get us _both_ in a lot of trouble at this rate,” he finally managed to get out after a few moments, smirk fully back in place. He slid a hand over Aspen, firmly grasping her ass. “The trouble would be well worth it.”

“We shouldn’t.” Aspen’s brain began working again, and all it could process was _no no no no no_. Sofi would be furious. Ichiji may actually kill her. She didn’t believe a word out of her own mouth and Niji would see right through her. “We shouldn’t.”

“You don’t have a thing to worry about.” He let go of her ass to pull her back up to him by her shoulders. He kissed her again and she kissed back even harder. It had only been a few minutes since she’d agonized over the thought of a single kiss, and now it had become two. “I’m not my brother.”

“You can’t tell Ichiji.” The very mention of him made Aspen dread ever leaving the room. She was an _awful_ liar. He would ask where she’d gone, what had happened. And he would see right through her story just like everyone else could. Sofi was right - she needed to learn how to lie correctly. And _fast_.

Niji kissed her again, nipping slightly on her bottom lip. Three kisses. Another shiver rippled through Aspen’s body. “I can’t think of any reason I would.”

“Even though you don’t think I’m good enough for him,” she added as an afterthought, remembering his statement a few minutes ago. Even though she was no longer straddling him as she had been, she kept her upper body laying against his where he'd pulled her up, and she had her hands at either side of his face as three kisses became four, and then five. 

The craving for more was nearly overpowering, and Aspen shoved it down as hard as she could. All she had to do was unbutton the shirt, take off her underwear, and she would be halfway to what she was craving. _“I’m a princess. Not a plaything,”_ Aspen willed herself to slow down, calm down. Don’t do something stupid. In spite of herself, she could feel her racing pulse dropping back down, beginning to slow. 

He bit her lip again, softer than before, and broke away to gently kiss her neck. It was a welcome change from the constant blotched bruises from chin to shoulder. Aspen wasn’t sure what to make of the decidedly tender gesture as it soothed her, calming her down slightly. “I didn’t say that. I said you were a bad match for him. There is a fucking difference. You _are_ a terrible match for Ichiji.” 

Niji’s answer, of course, made no sense. The smell of his skin and the warmth of his body was making her sleepy all over again, and Aspen slowly scooted down until she could rest her face on his chest. Desire was no match for her exhaustion, but she clung to him even as sleep pulled harder and harder at her. “If you say so,” she mumbled, her eyelids becoming heavier by the second. She felt his fingers moving through her hair, massaging at sore patches of scalp where her crown had sat earlier. It made her even sleepier.

“You’re a perfect match for _me_ ,” he continued, his voice dropping lower. “And I know you see it."

“Keep talking and I’m going to knock your fucking teeth down your throat,” Aspen yawned, her voice softer than when she’d told him the same thing earlier. She hadn’t realized how tired he was as well, to be spouting that kind of nonsense.

“Case in point.” He laughed, and his hand came to rest almost protectively right between her shoulders. Aspen’s eyes finally shut completely as he added one last remark. “My kind of girl.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- strong feels about the smut I edited out because it'll be so much better later


	20. MUSETTE V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- CAUTION: violence. Also uncomfortable memories of child abuse.  
> \- This was one of my favorite chapters to write/edit

As the kingdom began to fully transition into the end of the year holidays, the palace looked as though it had been injected with magic. The constant, unrelenting snowfall left intricate patterns frosted into every window, and just before the official start of the Yule holidays, Musette woke up to find that a team of staff members had done the annual overnight decorating, plunging the palace into an atmosphere of excitement. String lights in gold and silver were hung from the walls in every corridor, holly wreaths hung on doors, and any window lacking a candle was quickly decorated properly. Corridors alternated smelling like evergreen boughs and spiced bakery treats, quickening pulses and improving moods, and slowly, the palace began to bustle more as the staff adjusted to Germa’s presence.

For Musette, she was already in the midst of the longest good mood she could remember. Aside from the shower incident and Yonji insisting she dance with him at that one dinner party, her assignment to Yonji’s staff was quite possibly the easiest job she’d held in her entire time at the palace. After the first few weeks, she’d learned to predict his moods and wants pretty accurately - but it seemed as though he’d learned to read her well too. Despite them getting along well on the whole, it seemed Yonji enjoyed going out of his way to press her buttons, tilting Musette closer and closer to another ‘unprofessional’ outburst - something she had tried very hard to avoid. It took all her restraint - and it seemed as though Yonji relished in making her mad.

“Does this kingdom do anything special for the end of the year holidays?” Yonji asked, in all seriousness, as they passed an entire wall decorated in garlands and blinking lights, all the greenery sprinkled with white glitter to give them the appearance of having been dusted with snow. They were on their way to lunch, and the closer they got to the hub, the more intensely decorated the palace was.

“A few things, kinda,” Musette answered sarcastically as she pushed one of her braids over a shoulder. She had woken up early enough to plait her hair into two braids, weaving green ribbon through for a holiday touch. “There’ll be decorated trees all over the place soon enough. Parties basically every night once Yule officially starts -”

“Will there be dancing?”

“Not with me.”

Yonji smirked at Musette when she glanced over her shoulder to frown at him. Even he was starting to be affected by the constant chill, and had taken to wearing a dark green sweater over his regular shirt. It matched Musette’s hair ribbons. “I could always _order_ you to -”

“No, you _can’t,_ ” From behind him, Musette heard Aspen. She came from around a corner, dressed in her usual fare of thick leggings and sleek boots, but her usually-grey top had been replaced with a red one, with a very low neckline. Her silver cape was missing. For the first time in a good bit, she seemed to be smiling as she clutched a stack of papers to her chest.

Musette smiled back at her. “Aspen.” She’d dropped any pretense of being formal with Aspen in front of Yonji a long time ago. “Good to see you.” And she was alone, interestingly enough - it was odd to see her without either of Yonji’s older brothers hanging around right behind her. “You look -”

“ -Like hell.” Yonji interrupted Musette, giving Aspen a strange look as she caught up and walked with them. “You look like you haven’t been sleeping.”

“Fuck off.” Yonji wasn’t completely wrong, though. Despite Aspen seeming to be in a better mood than she had been, she looked exhausted from her head to her toes. Musette wasn’t an idiot - she knew full well why Aspen wasn’t sleeping well, and she wasn’t dumb enough to talk about it aloud. Anyone who’d been through the northern wing at any point since Germa’s arrival knew why. Aspen forced a polite smile. “Are you guys going to lunch too?”

“Yep.”

Aspen gripped the stack of papers tighter, and Musette caught sight of the word WANTED partially obscured by Aspen’s hand. “I’ll tag along. Musette, can we speak alone before we head in with everyone else?”

“She’s on _my_ staff -” Yonji started to complain, face growing stormy.

“ -And you won’t miss her for ten goddamn minutes while you’re busy stuffing your fucking face!” Aspen was in a better mood than she had been, certainly, but she was still in no mood for Yonji’s whining. Yonji wisely did not fire back, and fell silent as they walked through the halls, passing all kinds of cheery holiday decorations. When they arrived at the dining room, Musette had all but shoved Yonji along on his own, and Aspen gestured to Musette to follow her back down the hall, just around the corner. 

More curious than ever, Musette followed, aware that Yonji was still hovering in the doorway to the dining room, watching them disappear again. She had waited _weeks_ to see if Aspen would come talk to her - about more than the casual conversations they could have in front of Yonji and his siblings. Aspen hadn’t said much of anything to anybody - even Sofi had confessed that she’d barely said a word to Aspen for weeks before Ichiji would whisk her off. Everybody had noticed Aspen’s eyebrow-raising about-face with Ichiji, and made everyone who knew her uncomfortable. As they rounded the corner, Musette took a deep breath when she saw Aspen huddling beside a yet-undecorated Yule tree. Whatever the issue was, she was there to help. “What’s wrong?”

Aspen held up a stack of bounty posters, shaking them excitedly with a goofy smile on her face. “Look!”

Confused, Musette raised an eyebrow. “Did...you really just drag me over here to show me a new batch of bounty posters?” Aspen sometimes stopped at the post office in town to collect bounty posters to keep in her room. In the past, she had always saved the ones with the highest bounties, or the strangest photos. “Like, really?”

“Look!” Aspen wiggled the stack again, excitedly.

Sighing, Musette accepted the posters. The top poster was one she’d seen before in town, at every bar and down by the harbor. It had a grinning young guy, likely close in age to her and Aspen, wearing a straw hat. “It’s Straw Hat Luffy.”

“I read the papers, he and his crew pulled some _crazy_ shit at Enies Lobby.” Aspen looked nearly Sofi levels of excited. Enies Lobby was nowhere near Hoarfrost - it wasn’t even in the North Blue, it was in the Grand Line - but everyone knew the infamous government stronghold by name. “Now his entire crew has bounties! Keep looking.”

Musette had already heard something similar - it was all any of the guests could talk about. She shuffled to the next poster. “Pirate Hunter Zoro.”

“Keep going.”

She pulled up the next one. “Sogeking.” Musette squinted at the poster. “Hey, hold up, this guy’s wearing a mask. How useful is this poster going to be if he takes it off?”

Sighing impatiently, Aspen flapped at hand at Musette, engagement ring sparkling in the light from the window candles. “Keep going.”

“Cyborg Franky.”

“Keep going.”

“Devil child Nico Robin.”

“ _Keep going!”_

Musette flipped to what appeared to be the last poster. It was slightly thicker than the others. She stopped dead when she saw the picture, and her mouth slipped slightly open. She had never seen anything like it. No wonder Aspen was so excited. “Is this…”

“IT IS.” Aspen looked giddy.

“A reindeer eating cotton candy! With a 50 beli bounty!” Musette half-wondered if it was a gag poster, but it was _so cute_. She’d never seen a bounty poster for a reindeer before, let alone one eating cotton candy. And wearing a hat. All they had in Hoarfrost were bramble-antlered moose, and they were nowhere near as cute as the reindeer on the poster.

“Isn’t he adorable?” Aspen was beside herself, grinning from ear to ear. “I don’t even know him and I love him. I’m putting his poster with the others I have.”

“He’s a member of the Straw Hat Pirates? Are you sure? Is he their pet or something?”

Aspen kept cackling, doubling over and wheezing, her hair sweeping onto the floor. “I mean I guess he’s part of their crew, his poster was with all the others!” She choked out, trying to straighten back up. “There’s one missing, for Cat Burglar Nami, but I ran into Stitch before I found you and he asked if he could have it.”

Musette suppressed a groan, trying to smile again for Aspen. It was cute, but she had been hoping for a conversation with a little more substance. It was hard not to feel a little frustrated. “You pulled me aside just for this?”

“Are you kidding me? Of course.” Almost crying from laughing, Aspen wiped at her eyes with her sleeve before extending her hand. “If you’re done, I’ll take those back. I think I’m going to keep all of them, not just Chopper. They all look really cool but I just lost my shit at the reindeer.”

Deciding to just be relieved that Aspen finally seemed even slightly happy, Musette handed the stack back to Aspen. As Aspen pulled it away, Musette’s fingers caught on the corner of Chopper’s poster, and another poster began to peel away from the back. “Hold on.” Musette pulled the posters back, and kept picking at the mystery poster stuck to the back of Chopper’s. “There’s another one.”

“Another?” 

Musette peeled the poster fully away, and took a closer look. Unlike the others, there was no photo, only a poorly done artist’s depiction. His blonde hair was drawn shaggy, the lips took up the bottom half of his face, and a cigarette had been added to his mouth as almost an afterthought. She read the name. “Black Leg Sanji.”

Aspen made a clear ‘yikes’ expression as she looked at the photo. “That’s about as unflattering of a picture as it gets. Poor bastard.”

“It’s a _drawing_ , not a picture.”

“You know what I mean.” Aspen tilted her head, studying the picture. “Round face, badly drawn hair, flat eyes, and that curled eyebrow -”

Musette froze when Aspen mentioned the eyebrow. She hadn’t noticed it before, but it was indeed curled. Musette looked back at the name, and then again at the eyebrow. “Hold on, Aspen, wait - _Sanji?”_

“Hm?” Aspen looked curiously at Musette, not connecting the dots on her own. “What?”

Musette could not believe neither of them hadn’t noticed before. She thrust the poster into Aspen’s face, shaking it. “You don’t think it’s the tiniest bit _weird_ that we have **Rei** ju, **Ichi** ji, and **Ni** ji, but then it skips right to **Yon** ji?” She tapped the name on the poster rapidly as Aspen began to look very interested, her eyes wide. “There’s no **San** ji. What if this is their brother?”

Aspen nodded slowly, not looking fully convinced. “I guess...it’s possible...but his eyebrow is going the opposite way from all of them. Why would his be different if he’s one of them? And look, he’s got normal blonde hair - er, ‘normal’ is subjective here, going off this picture - but the rest of them all have neon hair -”

“Why are you two hanging around over here instead of eating lunch with everyone else?” In the blink of an eye, the poster had been snatched right out of Musette’s hands. Prince Niji brought it close to his face as he leaned against the wall, looking at it with no expression. “What is this?”

Immediately, Aspen was furious, and she stomped over to Niji. “You can’t just grab things out of people’s hands!” She went to grab it back and he easily held it out of reach, grinning down at her before turning his attention back to the poster. 

“Black Leg Sanji…” He mused, holding the poster higher and higher as Aspen resorted to _climbing_ him in an attempt to get it back. She jumped, grabbing onto Niji’s shoulder, pulling herself up and hanging onto him as she strained to grab the poster. Musette raised an eyebrow as she watched. It looked _way_ too friendly and familiar for how much she knew Aspen disliked him, though it felt less strange as Aspen swiped at his face with an open palm. She missed and promptly fell back to the floor as Niji burst into laughter, heading back in the direction of the dining room. Aspen was hot on his heels, shouting at him, trying to grab him by his cape to drag him right back. Rolling her eyes, Musette followed.

When they got to the dining room, Niji had distracted Yonji from eating long enough to shove the poster in his face. Like his brother, Yonji exploded into loud laughter, pounding his fist on the table as he looked at the poster. The force shook plates and cups, distracting and irritating Nexus and their father, who were sitting at opposite ends of the long table as always. “Sanji! He didn’t crawl off and die somewhere after all!”

What seemed to have been a quiet lunch rapidly changed. At the mention of the name ‘Sanji,’ there was a commotion from both Nexus and Judge, both of whom rapidly got to their feet, knocking over their chairs, glasses, and a few decorative candles. Staff members who had been refilling drinks ran out of the way. Judge looked thunderstruck, and Nexus looked as though he’d seen a ghost, his face completely pale beneath his grey-blonde hair.

“What is _that_ supposed to mean?” Nexus whipped around to face Judge, his face angry in a way Musette had never seen before in the entire time she’d known him. Pale just moments before, he was turning a dark shade of red as his face twisted in fury. His hands were locked up in white-knuckled fists, and both of them were beginning to shake. “Sanji is alive? You said he had _died_. You told _everyone_ that he was dead.”

Aspen and Musette exchanged a look, both of them confused. _“What does Nexus know about this?”_ Musette thought to herself as she hung back by the door with Apen. Niji and Yonji were practically hanging onto each other, laughing louder and louder, and their father attempted to seize the poster from them before Ichiji took it instead.

“Well, well, well…” Even through the other two laughing, Musette could hear Ichiji musing to himself over the poster, a slow grin spreading across his face. “So he’s been alive all this time, _and_ he’s a pirate...this is an impressive bounty, too…”

“Why did you lie?” Nexus had finally moved from his spot, catching up to cut in front of Judge, getting in his face as though he were a common thug instead of a king. His jaw was locked, and his gritted teeth were all showing, flashing threateningly at Judge, who was glaring right back, still taller and stronger than Nexus. It was beyond bewildering, and was even beginning to scare Musette slightly. Nexus _never_ lost his cool. Never. He had also never looked so fierce before. Aspen was watching closely as well, her mouth slack and her eyes wide. “You told the whole _world_ that Sanji had died.”

“If Sanji is indeed alive, it is of paramount importance that he be found and brought to us immediately!” Judge roared directly at Nexus, who did not back down or flinch at all as he continued to glare with the utmost loathing. “You were told nothing because you decided it was not your concern any longer!”

Still smiling strangely, Ichiji handed his father the bounty poster while Niji and Yonji kept laughing, though they were starting to let up. As he studied the poster, Musette noticed Judge get a peculiar expression on his face that almost looked like pride. But he was a hard man to read clearly. “We need to contact the Marines and the World Government,” he informed Ichiji, who nodded along wordlessly. “I need him _alive_.” He turned and stormed out of the room, his footsteps shaking the floor even harder than usual. Ichiji followed, as did Nexus, who did not look as though he would calm down any time soon. As they left, the room was mostly silent again, outside of Niji and Yonji still laughing with each other.

Standing right beside Musette, Aspen took a deep breath, and looked at her nervously. “Was that all really weird to you too?”

“Kind of more than weird,” Musette admitted. She certainly hadn’t anticipated getting confirmation that the Straw Hat Pirate, Black Leg Sanji, was a Vinsmoke so soon. That hadn’t even been the weirdest part. “Have you ever seen Nexus get that angry before?”

Aspen shook her head insistently, chewing slightly on her bottom lip. “Never. Did...did his angry face look familiar to you though? I swear I’ve never seen him blow up like that but I swear, he has to have made that face before.” Her good mood from before had dissipated, and she looked unhappy and stressed again. “I don’t know how else to describe it.”

After the explosive outburst, lunch was a quiet affair. Reiju had not shown up at all, nor had Sofi. Both of them had been missing meals lately. Only Niji and Yonji stayed behind with Musette and Aspen, who had managed to fall asleep within seconds of sitting down at the table. Musette sat quietly between her and Yonji, who was reminiscing with Niji about how life had been when Sanji was around. She tried to tune it out after the first five minutes - just listening and picturing it all in her head angered her. Neither of them seemed the slightest bit ashamed of their past behavior. Some of their stories were uncovering bad memories of her own childhood, things she preferred not to think about.

“Musette.” After what seemed like an eternity of sharing stories with Niji about brutalizing Sanji, Yonji got back up and walked to the door. “Let’s go.”

“Aspen’s sleeping.” What was more, Aspen was sleeping and there was no one else around but Niji - not even staff members. His attention on Aspen had seemingly intensified as of late, and Musette was uncomfortable leaving her alone with him - especially since he had scooted over into Yonji’s vacant seat and was leaning in closer to her. 

“She’s Ichiji’s problem. Leave her. Let’s go.”

“No.”

“I’ll handle Aspen.” In the brief moment Musette had looked away from Aspen to glare at Yonji, Niji had scooped her out of her chair and into his arms, supporting her head as best as he could with his arm. Aspen twitched, frowning, and turned to bury her face against his chest.

Musette began to object, not at all liking the sight of her in his arms. Aspen would hate it even more, were she awake to notice. “Put her down, it’s not your place to -”

“Let’s _go.”_

Yonji grabbed Musette by her hand and pulled her away, dragging her out of the dining room and almost making her fall down twice as she tried to keep up with him. They passed a handful of staff members setting up Yule decorations, and they began to point and whisper to each other when they saw Musette and Yonji. “Go _where?”_ Musette snapped at him, finally yanking her hand out of his, startling him and the staffers that had stopped to watch. “You woke up late and you don’t even know what day of the week it is.”

Offended, Yonji crossed his arms like a stubborn child. “Thursday.”

“It’s _Saturday_ ,” Musette corrected him, irritated. She turned around, and could see Niji at the opposite end of the hall from them, carrying Aspen away. With a swish of his cape, he’d disappeared around the corner with her. Niji had no good reason to be trusted with her. “You dragged me away instead of just letting me keep an eye on Aspen for a bit longer. We’re going to spend an entire afternoon with you bored and asking me to entertain you.” Musette had been at Yonji’s side every day for a month. She knew. 

Yonji looked fully called out, and struggled for a minute to respond. “I have plans for us this afternoon, actually.”

“No, you do not.” Musette could feel the eyes of every staff member on them, watching, completely aghast. Not a single member of staff _dared_ talk back to a guest in the manner she was doing - particularly not to a Vinsmoke prince. “And - let me help you out here, _my lord_ \- eating, napping, and having me watch you smash through your kingdom’s own soldiers at the training facility don’t count as ‘plans.’” That was a twist of the knife and Musette knew it.

The outrage was plain on Yonji’s face, and he had no comeback.

“Not that I mind any of it,” Musette quickly added, suspecting that her remark had actually hurt his feelings slightly. While in the training facility (not far from the palace proper), Yonji preferred going shirtless - and that plus the sweat and (other people’s) blood all over him was kind of hot. Musette didn’t have it in her to really complain about _that_. “But they’re not true plans and I know you know it.”

“I...want a picnic.” He sounded like he was throwing together the first few words that came to mind.

“You just ate five minutes ago.” Musette heard even louder whispering from staffers, and a few of them ran off in the direction of the hub - she was almost completely certain they were going to go gossip with everyone else.

“I’m hungry again.”

Plausible. “Okay. A picnic where?” She was fully aware that the only reason a picnic had crossed Yonji’s mind at all was because the night before, Nexus had shared a story about going on a picnic with his twin sister when they were little (it had, admittedly, been a very cute story). But she didn’t call Yonji out on it. Yet.

“The...greenhouse.”

“A picnic. In the greenhouse.” Musette repeated back to Yonji, speaking slowly and enunciating every word. Saying it aloud, all together, made it sound even stupider than it had in Musette’s head. Yonji turned away from her with his head held high, clearly going all in on his fake plan. “Are you _sure,_ my lord?”

“If I wasn’t sure, I wouldn’t have told you in the first place. Go get some food and I’ll meet you at the entrance to the east wing.” Yonji walked away, pulling his sweater back over his head and throwing it in the face of a staffer who had been rushing back to join the others. The other staffers scattered in different directions before he could grab any of them. After the neck-grabbing incident from the morning after his arrival, most of them tried their best to avoid directly interacting with Yonji. “You. Put this in my room. I don’t need it anymore.”

Grumbling, Musette made her way back to the kitchens, pushing past the double doors into deafening silence. Every member of the sizable kitchen staff had stopped to look at her, standing beside bubbling pots, sizzling frying pans, and cutting boards laden with all varieties of vegetables. She paid no mind to any of them as she fished the closest thing to a picnic basket off a shelf in storage, and one after the other they returned to their tasks. They still hated her for Scallion’s disappearance, and whatever Musette’s mother had hissed in their ears about her before the temporary transfer. She was still so grateful her mother was gone - it was almost as if she’d traded her for Yonji. The thought made Musette chuckle to herself.

 _“And I guess my friendship with Aspen and Sofi,”_ Musette thought to herself as she gathered some food to prepare. Sandwiches seemed good, so she grabbed a loaf of bread and some spreads, along with a few bottles of lemonade. She started to pull some apples out of a bin, but decided on sugar snap peas instead. _“Oh, and my working with Yonji. If they want to be mad, they can be mad. I don’t have the time or energy to care anymore.”_ A month of angry looks but nobody bold enough to call her out had been pathetic. All bark and no bite. Musette settled into an empty workstation, grabbing a sharp knife to cut the bread for the sandwiches. 

“Well, well, well…” A voice came from behind Musette, and her chest tightened when she heard it. “It’s Musette Torte, right here with us _lesser_ staff.”

Musette had forgotten that, while her mother had transferred out for the duration of Germa’s visit, her best friend - and auxiliary head chef - Crema, had not. Hungry for the thought of having the true head chef position to herself one day, Crema was in the kitchens from sunrise to sunset, never taking a day off. She was boney, gangly, and _mean_. Musette ignored her as she put the sugar peas into a small bowl, tying cheesecloth around it to keep them all in.

“I thought we kept bitches in the kennels at the palace.” A good number of staff members broke out into guffaws and rude snickers, rippling through the massive expanse of the entire kitchen. Musette could feel Crema right behind her, well within slapping range. Her gut led her eyes to the bread knife instead, laying on the workstation within arm’s reach. _“It’s not going to come to that,”_ Musette chided herself for feeling jumpy over bitchy old Crema.

“And we also put the trash outside with the rats and the roaches,” Musette casually replied, slipping the lemonade bottles into fitted sleeves that would keep them cold. “But here you are, talking to me.”

Even more staff members laughed at Musette’s remark than had laughed at Crema’s. It made her feel a little good ( _“That’s the kind of skill you pick up when your best friends are Sofi and Aspen,”_ Musette thought, smug). She reached for the knife to start cutting the bread, and dropped it when she felt a hand yanking on her braids, spinning her around and pinning her against her workstation.

It was Crema, of course, a skeletal face with her auburn hair pulled into a stringy bun beneath her hairnet. But she wasn’t alone. At her side was a dark-haired guy, of about average height - though he could’ve been taller, for all Musette knew; Yonji had skewed what constituted ‘tall’ for her. He was right up in Musette’s personal space, and she could feel his breath on her neck. She didn’t recognize him, or know his name.

“No, Musette, you don’t get to talk to me like that.” Crema pursed her lips in a grimace, pulling hard on Musette’s braids, forcing her head back painfully. When Musette was finally able to right her head, Crema slapped her across the face. The echo of the slap made everyone who had still been talking fall silent, and Musette heard the shuffling of feet and rustling of clothes as multiple staffers circled around, straining for a better look. Musette felt heat glowing in her cheek, but the pain wasn’t much to speak of - Crema was only skin and bones, and Musette had been beaten on far harder in the past. Again, her eyes darted down to the knife, only centimeters from where Musette gripped the edge of her workstation.

The guy standing next to Crema chuckled, and gave Musette a cold smile. “I don’t think you’re getting through to her.” Musette still did not recognize him, not at all, but something about his voice seemed familiar. “I think she needs another one.”

Crema slapped Musette again, forcing spit out of her mouth and sending it in flecks all over the floor. Musette did not lift her hands to protect herself - if she moved her hands, and either of them grabbed her wrists, she would have no way to get her knife.

“Stop!” Musette craned her head to look past Crema and her lackey as they turned to see who had interrupted. Over by the main doors, slightly blocked from view by a gaggle of onlookers, was Khoya. Her neon orange hair was tied up in high pigtails with glittery silver ribbons for Yule, and she had painted tiny silver stars across the bridge of her nose. Her eyes were wide with horror as she tried to push past everyone to get to Musette. “You must not hurt the Miss Musette! You must not!”

Crema turned back to Musette with a dismissive sneer. “Shut up, Khoya.” She slapped Musette again, on the same cheek. Musette tried not to roll her eyes. If this was really the worse they could do...she didn’t know what she had been so worried about in the first place. “You think you can just smirk at me, after strutting around like you’re better than everyone? Just because you’re buddy-buddy with her royal highness and now you’re fucking the green-haired Vinsmoke prince?” Another slap, and that one had a bit of muscle behind it.

Musette laughed aloud before she could stop it. “I am _not_ fucking Yonji.” Though, she had thought about it an awful lot over the last few weeks - in private, at night, in her room with the door locked. “Stop slapping me.”

In response, Crema slapped her again, ranting even louder. Her voice was scratchy and unpleasant, and it hurt Musette more than the slaps. “Scallion disappears, you get promoted to a new position, and now you’re fucking the prince. Do you just spread your legs whenever you see something you want? Is that the kind of girl you are?” Her slaps were coming harder and faster, rapidly transitioning into closed-fist, sharp-knuckled blows that hurt a bit.

In her head, Musette recalled the faintest shadow of a memory, something from before she came to Hoarfrost, when she was still so small. She was getting beat all over her face by someone bigger and stronger than Crema, while hands held her down by her arms and legs. No matter how much she flailed, or kicked, or screamed, they wouldn’t let go. “Your mother was right,” she recalled hearing a man’s voice chuckle. “You’re more fun than she is.”

 _"This is nothing compared to that,”_ Musette thought dully, staring at a red-faced Crema with a blank expression on her face. _“Nothing will ever be like that was.”_

Crema’s lackey let out a laugh, and it cut through the fog in Musette’s head like a bullet as she recognized it. The stranger who’d pinched her ass outside her apartment, prior to Germa’s arrival. It had been him. 

“You need to stop!” Khoya continued to insist, still trying to climb over other staffers and reaching for Musette. When she saw nobody was willing to let her through to interrupt, she pulled back, making a frustrated noise. For a brief moment, she and Musette licked eyes, and then she turned and ran back out of the kitchen. The double doors swung wildly back and forth behind her, and Musette could hear her footsteps echoing as she ran.

The lackey stepped closer, grabbing Musette. She felt a hand close around her left wrist like a cuff, and her vision narrowed to a pinprick as everything around her began to move in slow motion. Inside her head, the memory continued playing, and Musette was helpless to stop it. She remembered fingernails digging into her skin so hard she bled, her arms being pulled straight out by her wrists, her legs spread open so far it hurt her hips.

Crema pulled her hand back for another blow, more insults spewing out of her mouth as her eyes closed in a blink. The lackey reached for Musette’s other wrist, but it wasn’t there. As Crema brought her hand back around to strike Musette, there was a slight whistling noise as the knife sliced through the air without Crema or the other guy noticing. Several long moments later, the whistling noise was abruptly replaced with the wet sound of meat cutting.

Everything switched back to regular speed in that instant, and Crema’s lackey tackled Musette hard to the floor as Crema began to scream in pain. The back of Musette’s skull bounced as it came in contact with the dirty tile, and she was briefly disoriented, her vision focusing and unfocusing rapidly as the kitchen broke into absolute chaos around them. Musette swung her hand at his face, fist still tightly squeezing the handle of the knife, and she felt a hot spray all over her as he roared loudly. Clenching her other wrist so tightly she was sure he’d snap it, he punched Musette in the side of the head so hard her vision temporarily whited out. Blood continued to rain thickly all over her face and chest, soaking her clothes and clouding her eyes. She could hear other staffers yelling, but nobody was screaming as loud as Crema.

“Korovai!” Crema was not even a foot away, red-faced with tears streaming down her sharp cheeks, bent double with her hand wrapped up in her rapidly-darkening apron. Blood was dripping out of the fabric and landing in droplets all over the floor. Musette could smell and taste iron. “Kill her! Fucking kill her! That bitch! That _bitch!”_

“No, Korovai, stop!” Another staffer shouted from somewhere near the ovens.

“That’s enough, stop! Her royal highness will have all of our heads if you do anything else! Stop!”

Korovai, blinking through a slash that Musette could see running diagonally across his face from just above his brown left eye to his cleft chin, punched her again, this time in her gut. All the air was forced out of Musette’s lungs as she felt paralyzed, unable to draw a breath as she struggled to get free. Seizing one side of her dress collar in each hand, Korovai ripped her dress wide open to her waist, exposing her barely-concealed chest to anyone standing close enough to see it. The memory matched him motion for motion - but the dress back then had been smaller, thinner, and there had been nothing on her chest worth exposing. Even this was not as bad as _that_.

Finally letting out her own scream as her lungs began to work again, Musette gripped her knife tighter than before and aimed it low, stabbing as hard as she could through his dark grey pant leg. She felt resistance against the blade as she hit bone, and as she wrenched the blade right back out, another hot jet of blood arced through the air and chased the knife. Korovai let out another loud yell. Musette’s brain continued to play through the memory, but it was clouding, all sights and sounds distorted. She could feel her pulse in her eyes and in her ears and it was deafeningly loud.

Panicked staff members were running out of the kitchen as fast as they could, in any direction they could. It was evident that nobody had anticipated the confrontation going as far as it had. Many staffers ran out the way Khoya had gone, directly back into the palace, but many more were streaming out through the back doors, by the delivery zone, into the snow. Almost none remained. Crema stayed close, equal parts shrieking and sobbing, trying to kick Musette but hitting Korovai, his facial wound weeping all over Musette, twice as often. Grimacing in pain, his teeth stained with the blood from his face, Korovai pulled a fist back, its trajectory aimed directly for Musette’s face. 

Out of nowhere, a hand twice the size of his closed around his wrist.

Musette watched, open-mouthed, and it felt as though time had slowed once more. Korovai, confused and bewildered, was being pulled off of Musette as though he were a toy. He was pulled straight up by his wrist, gripped in the same way he had gripped Musette only minutes earlier. Blood was spilling over one of his shoes from the wound in his leg, and that too dripped all over Musette’s ruined dress. Behind Korovai, her eyes moved from the floor up: black dress shoes, with matching dress pants. A white button-up, slightly ruffled down the center, quickly becoming filthy with blood. Then she saw the red cape, the green hair, the blue eyes.

“Yonji!” The raw voice that tore its way out of Musette’s throat didn’t sound like her at all. She struggled quickly to her feet, ignoring the flashes of pain in her gut and in her head. She heard herself scream his name again. “Yonji!”

Korovai looked terrified as the prince gave him the most contemptuous expression she had ever seen from him. Whatever staff members remained in the kitchens froze in place and there was a deathly silence. Even Crema stopped and gawked, still holding her wrapped, injured hand. There was a pause that lasted only milliseconds, and then, in a single, fluid motion, Yonji threw Korovai at the wall head-first. The wall exploded on impact, showering everyone present in plaster, brick, and wooden splinters from the frame. Freezing cold air blew in through the broken wall, sending snow into the kitchen and blowing over abandoned pots and pans.

Once Korovai was gone, Musette grabbed Yonji’s arm, yanking him down close to her. She could barely feel the pain anymore, and her heart was racing in a way she hadn’t felt in years. He smiled at the sight of her, and then he saw her - _truly_ saw her, chest exposed, knife in hand, covered in someone else’s blood. His smile was replaced by what felt like adoration, jaw hitting the ground, his eyes even more wide open than they’d been when he first saw her. Yonji wrapped his arm around her waist, and Musette felt her feet leaving the ground. Before he had even gotten her right up to face level, she dropped her knife and flung her arms around him, pressing her mouth hard against his, gripping tight to the back of his head and his shoulders as she kissed him furiously. Without missing a beat, he kissed back with equal enthusiasm, not bothered in the slightest by the blood that covered her.

Crema, the only staffer who had not fled, broke into a renewed fit of screaming, her eyes bulging out of her head. “What the fuck is wrong with you? What the fuck is wrong with both of you??”

Yonji pulled his mouth off of Musette’s long enough to turn and give Crema a withering glare. “You want to go through the wall too?”

She stopped mid-shriek, her mouth opening and shutting like a goldfish. Yonji turned his full attention back to Musette, and he ran a hand along her cheek. “Would it make _you_ happy?”

Rather than answer, Musette grabbed his face and pulled it back to hers, parting his lips with her tongue before pressing it in. He accepted it eagerly, holding her so tightly Musette found it slightly difficult to breathe. The memory was gone, muted, and there were no further sounds from Crema or Korovai. It felt good to come out a winner. Musette kissed Yonji fiercely, wrapping herself tightly against him, barely noticing at all as the doors swung open and Nexus, Aspen, and Niji ran in. She was having a moment - and everything that had to come after could wait.


	21. NEXUS VI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- there's probably going to be a gap of a week or so between this chapter and the others, I have FINALLY caught up to how far I've written  
> \- I do write pretty fast though so we'll see. But ACNH comes out Friday so...  
> \- not a very long chapter but it's good...at least I think it is

“He’s fired.” Aspen paced restlessly in the empty office where she, Nexus, Espresso and Mocha had gathered to review the tapes. The ceiling fan was off-balance, and there was an irritating clicking noise as it whirred above them - but without it, the small office was uncomfortably hot for how many people were behind its closed door. Niji was hanging around as well, bringing their number to five, leaning against the door and laughing as the scenes from the kitchen played back on the screen Nexus had hurriedly set up against a wall. “She’s fired. He’s fired. They’re all fired. They’re all fucking fired. All of them. Not Musette and not Khoya. Fire the rest of them. Effective today, effective now.”

Nexus buried his face in his hands as he sat on the edge of the desk. He could feel a massive, pulsing headache raging. First the news about Sanji, and now _this_. There had to be a limit on what one man could handle in a day - in a lifetime. “You can’t just fire the entire kitchen staff because they didn’t get involved in the fight.” Normally, he would be fully with Aspen, but they simply did not have enough staff left to replace them. _“Sanji is alive,”_ he reminded himself, still not over the stunning shock from lunchtime. _“He’s alive. Sora’s death was not meaningless after all.”_

“Like fucking _hell_ I can’t.” Aspen rounded on Espresso and Mocha, both of whom had been watching the screen wordlessly but now cowered at their small, angry ruler. Aspen jabbed a finger in the direction of the screen, her fury plain on her face. “All of them. Fired. Except for Musette and Khoya. Have I made myself clear?”

Espresso and Mocha exchanged a nervous look, with Mocha squeezing a binder full of papers to her chest and Espresso tapping his gilded cane against the floor. After a moment, Mocha took a deep breath and tried to explain the situation to Aspen. “Your royal highness, I assure you, Espresso and I are just as appalled as you at the mistreatment of a valued member of the palace staff -”

Aspen grasped the arm of Mocha’s chair and leaned in, rapidly snapping her fingers directly in her face. Nexus was dismayed by the rude gesture, but said nothing. “I didn’t ask you for worthless platitudes, I asked if I’d made myself clear that you both are to _fire_ the kitchen staff outside of Khoya and Musette.”

Beginning to look intensely stressed himself, Espresso grabbed his portable chalkboard from the floor beside his chair, and scribbled out a message with a chalk pen pulled from his pocket. Nexus pressed his hands into the sides of his head, feeling the pressure inside intensify as Niji started snickering. _“She’s not going to like that.”_

“Don’t write me a message,” Aspen responded sharply. “I’m not going to read the fucking message.”

“Crema and Korovai will be fired, once they have both been treated for the injuries they received.” Nexus did not bother to remind Aspen that the injuries were both courtesy of Musette; for one, he did not believe it would do any good, and two, Nexus was strangely proud that Musette was sticking up for herself...even if it had been in a decidedly extreme way. “Aspen, we have enough of an issue dealing with the state of the kitchens...the amount of blood in there was no joke. It needs to be treated as a biohazard, and that means throwing all the food out...and that’s not even addressing what Prince Yonji did to the wall.” God, the _fucking wall_. Nexus had stood staring at it for a solid chunk of time before Aspen had dragged him away to look at the tapes. One more fucking nightmare to add to his headache. _“Who cares about your headache? Sanji is alive after all.”_

“That’s not good enough,” Aspen insisted. “It’s nowhere near good enough.”

Niji stopped laughing, and stepped away from the door to join Aspen by Espresso and Mocha. He was far taller than Aspen, but his way of positioning himself by the princess was different from what Nexus had seen with Ichiji - he stood beside her, rather than behind her. The top of her head barely reached his shoulder. Nexus felt his shoulders stiffen at seeing Niji so close to her. He still had no answer for what had happened with Aspen and Niji the other night - when he had escorted her to dinner and she'd promptly disappeared - but Aspen had shown up the next morning unscathed. Nexus had nursed some suspicions, but hadn’t had a minute alone with either of them. _“For what it’s worth,”_ Nexus thought to himself as he looked at the two of them. _“She certainly doesn’t seem afraid of him or intimidated by him at all.”_ He could not really say the same of her with Ichiji. _“It doesn't seem like he hurt her.”_

“I think you should all do what your princess tells you to do and stop making excuses...you will have the unintended side effect of undermining her authority even further.” Niji informed Espresso and Mocha, a slight growl to his voice that couldn’t be ignored. The corners of his mouth had been tugged down into a frown, and his eyes remained hidden behind the lenses of his goggles - which he had still not been seen without. “Fire the kitchen staff.”

Now Aspen rounded on him, looking no less angry. Her face was already red with anger, but Nexus watched it flush even darker as her agitation increased. “What the fuck do you mean ‘undermine even further?’ Nobody undermines my authority at all.”

He snorted, and waved at her like she was an irritating bug. “You’re undermined right and left. You know exactly what I mean.” Leaving Aspen looking outraged, Niji turned his attention back to Espresso and Mocha, who looked uncomfortable at being addressed by the prince with a well-known reputation for being verbally abusive to staff. “She told you to fire them. I’m not sure why either of you are trying to argue with your princess. Fire them and bring in the servants from Germa. They’re all sitting around being fucking useless anyway while we’re all here.”

That surprised Nexus - it was an alternative he had not even considered, and it wasn’t a bad one. He moved his hands from his head and slipped one inside his pocket for a cigarette. “I...suppose we can do that.” He lit the cigarette, thinking about what that would entail as he inhaled thin wisps of smoke up through his nose. _“We would need to clear out living space for them...I’m sure there’s room in the southeast and the southwest...I can have Espresso and Mocha coordinate that.”_ He didn’t really care, it didn’t matter to him - Sanji was _alive_. He was alive and Nexus had been given little to no time to process that. “Espresso, Mocha, please go speak to Judge about this. Inform him that the suggestion came directly from his son.” Of course, it had come from Niji - it would have been better coming from Ichiji, but Nexus wouldn’t be picky. He had to resolve this issue and get back to his office. He didn’t know how much longer he could hold himself together.

Aspen did not look any happier as she glowed a darker red under all her black hair. “I don’t need or want your help!”

“You think I care what you want?” Niji sneered down at her, but his malice seemed to be lacking. He was holding back on tearing into Aspen because of the other people present - Nexus was sure of it. “If you fire all the kitchen staff and then there’s no food for anyone, there will be problems. Starting with me.” 

“For the love of _god_ , Aspen,” Nexus pleaded, teetering on the edge of a migraine even with his cigarette. “Germa is right _in the harbor_. Can we please just -”

“Fine. Fine!” Aspen relented easily for a change, though she kept looking up at Niji rather than at Nexus, her expression beneath her flush unreadable. Fearing another fight, Espresso and Mocha left quickly enough without a second glance. Germa’s staff meshing with Hoarfroast’s main team would make for an interesting dynamic. Nexus wondered if Aspen would protest Niji’s mistreatment of the staff once they were no longer her own.

Aspen turned to leave, Niji still walking by her, when Nexus held a hand up. This was the perfect opportunity to speak to her, with Ichiji still out of the picture. “Aspen, a moment please.”

Niji stopped too, just in the doorway, turning his head towards Aspen. She had stopped a few feet away, glancing at Nexus with a tilted head, expression morphing from anger into confusion pretty quickly. Nexus blew a large smoke ring into the ceiling fan, watching it be dashed apart and blown into the corners of the office.

“ _Alone_ , Aspen,” he added. 

Niji ignored Nexus and didn’t move, though he saw his grip on the frame tighten slightly.

“Are those headphones or earmuffs?” Aspen narrowed her eyes at Niji, pulling her shoulders down and squeezing her hands in fists. “He said he wants a moment _alone_. Go away.”

Huffing angrily, Niji stepped out of the office, slamming the door behind him. Once he was gone, Nexus saw Aspen relax her posture, sighing and turning back to him. Her anger was mostly gone, and now she looked almost as stressed as him. “That, ah. That was...nice of Niji, suggesting we use Germa’s staff. I wouldn’t have thought about it.” Her eyes looked sad, almost pleading, behind her black eyelashes. “I couldn’t leave those idiots in their comfy kitchen jobs after they just stood around and let that happen to Musette.”

“They were hitting Musette, Aspen, you saw in on the tapes.” Nexus knew the argument was stupid but he had to at least try and put it in perspective. “ _Hitting_ her. Musette retaliated by _pulling a knife on them_. We’ve talked before about escalation. That was escalation.”

“Nobody was helping her!” Aspen protested, still very much upset over the treatment of one of her best friends. 

“Khoya came and got us,” Nexus reminded her, ashing his cigarette against his knee and watching the tiny grey shower sprinkle onto the tile. “Unfortunately, Prince Yonji caught wind of what was happening and now...the kitchen wall, as you saw.” It was _quite_ the leap for Yonji to go from unfeeling and cruel to his current over-protectiveness of Musette. Nexus needed to speak to Reiju and Corte and see what their thoughts on the matter were. 

Aspen hesitated, but then continued to protest in earnest. “She’s been through a lot, Nexus. A _lot_. You know what her mom is like. That probably had something to do with why she overreacted, maybe. It’s not fair to Musette.”

Nexus waved it off, and his cigarette rained more ash across his lap. The one day he decided to wear a brand-new lab coat and his black suit, and it was all sullied in ash. He sighed loudly, and his head throbbed harder. “Anyway. We can discuss that later. I pulled you aside to talk about a few other things. First - Ichiji.”

“Okay?” Aspen’s face stayed carefully blank. Nexus was not fooled - he had practically raised Aspen and knew her acts well. He leaned forward, resting his arms on his thighs as he examined her for any giveaway. She looked tired, and he could see that she had been chewing on her bottom lip again. She stood close enough that the air around them was starting to smell like the fruity lotion she wore. “What about him?”

“What’s going on with him?” Nexus felt uncomfortable even asking, but knew he had to. He had spoken to Musette and to Sofi, after being brought into the loop by Reiju, and had made the mistake of venturing into the northern wing himself while Aspen and Ichiji were shut up in her room together. Nexus couldn’t help but still think of Aspen as a child - he remembered teaching her how to add and subtract, for fuck’s sake - and even saying the words made him feel incredibly awkward. It was worse than when he had needed to address the change in her relationship with Sofi. “I have, ah...overheard...the two of you together. In your room.”

Aspen’s face, which had finally gone back to its normal shade, began to glow pink again. “Oh. You mean that.”

“I also heard he is not. Letting you sleep through the night. Strictly speaking.” Nexus recalled a detail that Reiju had shared with him. Thinking about how it was Ichiji, his nephew, only compounded his confusion. He had a fleeting mental image of his sister, pale but beaming, forcing him to hold a tiny red-haired baby, chubby-faced and trying to bite his fingers with the few teeth he had. _“He’s just trying to play with you!”_ Sora had insisted, even as Ichiji’s teeth had sunk right down to the bone. The bite had required stitches. Nexus shuddered at the thought. “Is that true, Aspen?”

The pink in Aspen’s face intensified, and she looked mortified. “Yes. Um. It’s okay, really, it’s at least kind of my fault.” She looked away, jerking her head towards the wall. It was clear she was just as embarrassed as Nexus was. “I mean, I’ve...never really...done that, before, it’s different with Sofi -”

“ -Right,” Nexus quickly cut her off, not really wanting to think about that either.

“But, um, yeah, that’s all that is, it’s fine. It...beats trying to talk to him. It's fine.” Aspen waved him off exactly as Niji had done to her earlier. It was evident she didn’t want to talk about it any more than he did. 

Nexus, unfortunately, didn’t feel right stopping just there. It felt irresponsible. He took another deep, deep drag on his cigarette - too deep, and he erupted into a fit of coughing, which shook even more ash all over him as he jerked back violently. Aspen stood in place as he tried to catch his breath, looking like she was trying to die on the spot. When he finally stopped coughing, his suit and lab coat were tinted grey, and his eyes were watering profusely. “When I spoke to Sofi -”

 _“I heard way more than I ever wanted to hear,”_ Sofi had confided in Nexus, one of the only times he’d ever heard her speak quietly in her life. Her mouth had been pressed into a thin line, and her brown eyes locked on his. _“And I distinctly heard her telling him he was hurting her. I couldn’t have misheard that, I promise.”_ He had been smoking then, too, trying to figure out what even to say - to Sofi _or_ to Aspen - when Sofi had extended her hand. _“Can I have some of that?”_

“It’s role-playing.”

"...Role-playing?"

"You know, like -"

Another violent coughing fit gripped Nexus, cutting Aspen off mid-explanation, and he stubbed his cigarette out on the desk. That was something he had not expected her to pull out. Judging by the fresh embarrassment on Aspen’s face, it was the truth. She took a step backwards, towards the door, avoiding eye contact with him. “Can I, um. Please go now?”

“Wait.” There was one more thing, and Nexus didn’t like that any better. He knew Aspen would also not like him bringing it up. “What happened the other night? When Niji was supposed to escort you to dinner?”

Aspen shrugged, and once again, the blush on her face was fading away. She looked grateful for a change in topic. “Niji dropped me off at dinner and he left. And before anyone could see me, I left too. I was tired and wanted to sleep instead” She turned away, and began to walk towards the door, reaching for the knob. “I hope they went easy on you...it’s not like you had any idea. I am sorry about that.”

“So you weren’t with Niji after he dropped you right at dinner?”

“No.”

“Mm, okay.” Nexus had been afraid that she would lie to him. He cleared his throat as she stood up, brushing the ash off of him and smearing it even worse. Every goddamn time. “Could you tell me why you were in Niji’s bedroom?”

Aspen’s hand froze for a split second, and then she tried to continue moving as though the question hadn’t fazed her at all. Nexus sighed internally - she couldn’t _not_ give herself away. “I wasn’t in Niji’s room. That’s fucking stupid.”

She could say that all she wanted, but Nexus knew the distinct smell of her body lotion anywhere. It had Aspen smelling like fruit everywhere she went, and it was unmistakable - and Nexus knew he'd smelt it in Niji's room when he - with Ichiji and Reiju - had gone looking for her. Of course, it was better for him in the long run if he didn't tell her how he knew she was lying. “Aspen, we both know you’re lying.”

“I’m not lying.”

“You are a _terrible_ liar, Aspen.”

“Fine.” From behind, he saw her tensing her shoulders beneath all her hair, and she was beginning to sound angry again. “I said I wanted to sleep. I wanted to sleep where nobody could find me and where nobody would think to look for me - and nobody _would_ have thought to look for me there, if you hadn’t volunteered that you’d seen me with Niji.” Aspen exhaled loudly as she glanced over her shoulder at him, still sounding more annoyed than anything. “I just wanted to sleep. And I did.”

“So...nothing happened with Niji?” From his tone, it would be hard for Aspen to not know what he meant by that. Her explanation did explain why she was in his room in the first place, though her choice of secret sleeping spot was baffling. The entire conversation was awkward and beginning to confuse him to boot. _“None of this makes any sense at all...she so clearly despises him. Why would she go with Niji and not Sofi?”_ He was not banking on any clarity from Aspen.

Her face quickly morphed from frustrated to offended, with her eyes narrowing in a dangerous way, and Nexus backpedaled, holding his hands up. “Sorry, sorry. I just needed to make sure.” The way Niji had fixated on Aspen, it wouldn’t have surprised Nexus at all to hear his nephew had tried to pull something. Hearing that he hadn’t was the bigger surprise.

“Do you want to fucking ask me if I’m doing anything with _Yonji_ either?” Aspen asked sarcastically, mouth twisted in disgust. “Not that any of it changes anything. None of what we’ve discussed is a reflection on what I _know_ you know. I hate them. I hate all of them, and I want them out of my home. Is that all you wanted? Can I leave now?”

He started to answer and Aspen took off without waiting to hear what he had to say, leaving the door open behind her. There was a brief instance when he considered going after her, but his knees popped dangerously with his first few steps away from the desk. They’d had a rough couple of days. Shaking his head, Nexus shrank down the screen they had used to review the kitchen footage, putting it back in his pocket alongside his transponder before walking back out of the office. He had barely taken two steps when he could sense someone behind him.

“If you could stop sneaking around and just speak to me outright, you’d save a lot of time for the both of us.” Nexus’s voice masked the edgy feeling in his gut. More often than not, as of late, he’d had the feeling of someone sneaking around behind him. He knew it had to be one of his nephews - the questioned just remained _which_ . _“I’m pretty sure the older two take turns following me around,”_ Nexus thought to himself. It’s what he and Sora used to do, after all.

His question was answered soon enough when Niji walked out of the dark expanse of hallway, grinning broadly. He stopped a few feet away from Nexus, looking at him curiously. “I hope your private moment with Aspen was illuminating.”

“That is _Princess_ Aspen to you.” Nexus wasn’t sure when Niji had decided to drop her official title, but it irritated him. With a brief bow to Niji, he turned to walk away. He needed to find Reiju, and they needed to talk too. _Sanji is alive_. “And that, quite frankly, is not your business. Else I would not have asked for a private moment in the first place.”

“It’s charming how reliant she is on you, Uncle. But it’s not a good look when an advisor tries to talk down to their princess.” Niji made a ‘tsk’-ing noise, shaking his head as he continued to grin, putting a hand out to support himself against the wall. “It’s an even worse look when said advisor tries to hide a crucial connection to an allied kingdom and its royal family - but that’s a guess, from me. It sure _seems_ to be important information that needs to be disclosed, doesn’t it?”

Nexus took a deep breath to steady himself, trying to act as though Niji’s casual use of the word ‘uncle’ hadn’t rocked him to his core. _“He does recognize me,”_ Nexus thought, harried and feeling his stress double. Unlike with Reiju, there was no warmth or affection in Niji’s voice - only casual mockery. Niji did not attempt to close the gap beneath him and Nexus, and Nexus remained standing still as well. “As it stands, I am her advisor - not you. If information is being withheld from Aspen, it is being withheld for a very good reason.”

The reason, of course, was Nexus had waited far too long - years too long - and now had no good opportunity in which to break the all-too-important news to Aspen. If he told her that Queen Sora of Germa was the twin sister he had told her stories about - thus making Ichiji his eldest nephew - there was a very good chance the palace would not remain standing. She had certainly just reminded him herself that she hated every last one of them. _“Better she hear it from you,”_ Nexus remembered Gogo telling him, the day before his family had arrived. _“And soon.”_

“I’m speaking in my capacity as her _friend_ ,” Niji continued, his grin spreading even wider as he took slow, lazy steps closer to Nexus. 

“Her self-declared friend,” Nexus reminded him. Aspen did not consider Niji a friend in any vein, and both Musette and Sofi would bristle if they heard Niji putting himself on the same level as either of them. “Ah, but - friends don’t keep secrets, isn’t that right?”

Niji stopped short, looking confused and irritated. “What do you mean?”

“You’re keeping an awfully big secret yourself, aren’t you?” Nexus now stepped closer, as Niji took a step back. Nexus could see how tightly his goggles were strapped to his head, with indents in his skin above and below the strap. Even with the exoskeleton, his skin looked red and irritated by the strap. _“His treatment could have slightly weakened the exoskeleton,”_ Nexus thought to himself as he drew closer. He remembered telling Reiju that on her first night back, in the lab. _“There’s a chance it could be causing more irritation than it did in the past.”_

To Niji, all Nexus said was, “Was it my voice that gave me away? You couldn’t possibly have gotten a good look at me.”

When Nexus came to, he was lying on his back in the same corridor as before, every muscle in his body spasming in horrible agony. Anja was kneeling over him, frantically trying to figure out how to help, but every time he felt her touch him, she jerked her hand back and yelped. In the dark, Nexus could make out the faintest sparks of blue electricity. _“That was a stupid thing to do,”_ Nexus thought as Anja ran off, yelling for someone to get Wintergreen. _“That was a very stupid thing to do.”_ He could’ve been more gentle, he knew that. But the ferocity of Niji’s reaction told Nexus all he needed to know. Nexus felt worse for Niji than for himself as he lay motionless on the floor, surrounded by confused staffers who had shown up. _“So he still can't see. Looks like there are a few things being rich and powerful can’t fix after all.”_


	22. SOFI V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- I was waiting for my museum to open in ACNH so I took time to edit  
> \- This is a callback to some of the stuff Aspen mentioned in her previous chapter

Following the initial shock from the successful incantation, Sofi found that she couldn’t put the _Old Arts_ book down. It was just as hard to read as before, but Sofi found herself all the more motivated now that she knew _it actually worked!_ Days were invested into transcribing what she could decipher into a personal notebook - the ones without blood sacrifices and all that gross stuff. The notebook stayed on her bedside table, and Sofi would stay up at night reviewing it. She migrated from her room to the western wing’s greenhouse whenever possible, having found a greater appreciation for the plants now that she understood their significance. _“If this is what Princess Belladonna was into right before she went off the deep end,”_ Sofi thought to herself as she laid on the futon that had been left since Aspen’s birthday. _“I can’t say I blame her.”_

It did help to make the palace slightly more bearable. Aspen was absent as ever, save for brief glimpses at mealtimes - when Sofi bothered to attend. The duchess Marga was still hanging around and trying to be all buddy-buddy, which offended Sofi more than Aspen being unreachable. Musette spent every waking moment with the green gorilla - though that was okay, since it finally looked like they had transitioned into ogling each other. She had even heard rumors of kissing having finally happened as well, though she could not confirm it. _“So, really, good for Musette,”_ Sofi was proud of her friend. Musette had Sofi’s full blessing in that regard.

Laying face-down on the futon after a full afternoon of transcribing, Sofi could still smell the blackcurrant and lemongrass of Aspen’s lotion. There was the smallest amount of sun - rare for so late in the year - and Sofi could feel it warming her scalp and the back of her neck through the leaves above. She fell asleep quickly enough, book in hand, dreaming briefly of flying with crows. When she woke up, Aspen was laying beside her.

Sofi blinked. Then she rubbed her eyes, smearing the coppery eyeliner she had so carefully applied that morning (and that had already smudged from her impromptu nap). Aspen was still there, but her eyes had begun to narrow. “Do you know how goddamn long it took me to find you?”

“This is a really convincing dream,” Sofi observed, lifting her head up slightly to observe Aspen at her side. Her black hair was glossy in the sunlight, and her skin as pale as ever. Her green eyes were framed in black lashes, with lightly purple circles beneath. “It’s going for full accuracy in how fucking annoying you are.”

Aspen punched Sofi in the arm. Before she could pull back, Sofi grabbed her and yanked her in close, quickly peppering her face in tiny kisses, her lip gloss leaving little sparkly imprints with ever smooch. So annoying, but so inherently lovable. All the hurt and anger Sofi had been nursing evaporated as she breathed in the smell of Aspen, all fruity angst and crybaby tears. She wrapped Aspen up in her arms as they laid on the futon, burying her face in her hair. It was such a _relief_ to hold her again. “I’m flattered you remembered that I exist. I thought Prince Ichiji had fully eclipsed me.”

Sofi saw the slightest spasm of pain across Aspen’s face as she pulled back a bit, but it was gone in an instant - replaced instead with a pout. “That’s not funny.”

“It’s a little funny.” Sofi cuddled Aspen, twining her arms and legs around her like an octopus. “I can hear you two at night, you know.”

“I know.” Aspen had the grace to sound embarrassed.

“He’s gotten you to make noises I’ve never even heard from you before.” Including a bunch Sofi hoped to never hear again. 

Aspen chuckled nervously, looking away and avoiding Sofi’s eyes. “I would hope not, fuck.” It was cute how she was when she was embarrassed - but this was a bit more than that. Sofi had _questions_ , but knew it Would Not Do to bombard Aspen now that she was here, alone, after weeks of deprivation. She would bolt in an instant or worse, lie. 

She settled for one question. “It’s an act, right?” Sofi’s voice was more anxious and serious than she intended, betraying the dread that had been growing in the pit of her stomach since the welcome reception. “For appearance’s sake? All of it?”

If Aspen’s eyes had been narrowed before, they all but disappeared as they narrowed even further as a hand shot out to flick Sofi hard on the ear. Even with how much she had missed and longed for Aspen, she not fucking missed _that_. “Are you an idiot? Of course it is.” She sat up then, looking nervously for eavesdroppers in the plants. There were none - the western wing was so quiet, you could hear a mouse scurrying on the carpet outside the greenhouse. Everything echoed, Sofi had found. “I’m not here to talk about Ichiji. I need your help.”

“How much?” Sofi asked brusquely.

“How much...what?”

“How much poison do you need?” Sofi, by complete coincidence, had gone out of her way to transcribe every single incantation and recipe from the _Old Arts_ book that seemed to be even remotely poisonous in nature. There were so many varieties of poison, and so many colorful ways to die. Someone had helpfully provided illustrations.

Aspen gave an exasperated sigh, and rolled her eyes. “We are not going to poison Ichiji.”

“Bitch.” Sofi had to admit she had no clue if any of it would work on a modified human. Now it was her turn to pout at Aspen. “It was only a suggestion. A really good one, though, so keep that in mind.”

“ _Focus.”_ Aspen snapped her fingers in front of Sofi’s face, and Sofi slapped her hand down to her lap. Her face seemed more drawn than usual, and the whites of her eyes even seemed a tinge bloodshot. “I need help getting out of the palace.”

“Since when has that ever been an issue for _you?”_ Sofi thought back briefly to the still-locked doors on the northern wing’s lower level. It had been a fingerprint-scanner lock, but that would be nothing for Aspen. “Where are you headed out to?”

“Where are _we_ headed out to, you mean?” Aspen corrected as her frown twitched into an evil smirk.

“Ah, you’re really pulling out all the stops in making this last month of hell up to me, huh?” Sofi didn’t know what the plan was, or where they were going, but just hearing ‘we’ and seeing that old smile had her bubbling over with excitement. She started bouncing up and down slightly, curls springing. “Musette?”

“Fucking duh.”

Bringing Musette meant luring her away from the green gorilla, though. Sofi paused for a moment and thought. _“I could throw a banana down the hallway and grab Musette’s while he’s distracted.”_ He did not look like the brightest bulb - how hard could it be? “Where are we going?”

Aspen bit on her bottom lip, beginning to chew it slightly. “Neigebelle.”

“Oh.” That _was_ a challenge.

“Yeah.”

“Fuck, Aspen. I see why you need my help.” Neigebelle, the crown jewel of northern Hoarfrost, was a famed resort town. It was home to slopes, hot springs, and natural beauty, the likes of which could not be found in the southern half of the kingdom, where Snøvanger was located. The Grand Chateau at Neigebelle was the holiday retreat of the Frostbane family - or it had been, before Aspen’s father had died. Snøvanger palace was far grander and extravagant in every way, but the Grand Chateau was charming and intimate. “For Yule?”

Aspen nodded, mouth switching back and forth between a smile and a worried frown. “I need time _away_ from Ichiji. Badly. I’m going to fucking snap.” She dropped her voice to a whisper, and leaned in closer. “I managed to steal documents regarding the marriage agreement from his father’s chambers. I need to review them but I never _don’t_ have a fucking Vinsmoke breathing down my neck. If I can just look over it all in peace, I might find a way to get me out of it completely, something that got left out of the papers that Nexus and I have.”

“When are we trying to leave?”

“Tonight or tomorrow.”

“God _damn it,_ Aspen.” Despite Sofi’s rebuke, it wasn’t completely impossible. Trains left from uptown Snøvanger every couple of hours for the long ride to Neigebelle, especially at this time of year. Tickets would be a piece of cake. The hard part - the part Sofi knew Aspen was mentally wringing her hands over - would be getting out of the palace undetected, especially with how Mace and Dagger had punched up security in response to those cultists. Sofi turned away from Aspen, closing her eyes and pressing her fingers into her temples. “Walk me through what you’re thinking. Timeframe, logistics, how we’re gonna keep Nexus and Ichiji from imploding.”

She could hear Aspen chewing harder on her lip. “I want it to be after dinner so there won’t be as many eyes on us. Dinner tonight is early, around 7. I’m not anticipating we’ll get out of this without _anyone_ following us - so I planned for that. Do you remember how we used to do it when we were little?”

“Oh, huh, I do.” Sofi hadn’t thought of that in years. “Royal family and their chosen attendants leave first. The rest of the household staff follows a few days later.” It had been that way since the first Frostbane queen - it was an old, old tradition. “You’d have to leave a note for Nexus explaining all that. There’s a chance the council might _not_ kill you if you pull that card. It would mean Germa following us anyway…”

"Let me worry about Nexus." Aspen raised a hand, holding up four fingers. “Four days. If I can even get four days without Ichiji and his family...to breathe and to review the papers...to _sleep_...it won’t matter if they end up coming to Neigebelle anyway.”

That felt like a lie to Sofi. Neigebelle was a special place for Aspen - her favorite place for her and the late king to go together. Ever since his death, she couldn’t bear to go back. Letting the Vinsmokes come somewhere that special had to cross a line for Aspen - but Sofi didn’t dare push back. Opening her eyes, she turned back to Aspen and folded her hands business-like on her lap. “We need money.”

“Ah.” Aspen reached down the front of her soft grey sweater, and pulled out a silver money clip shaped like an elaborate letter A. The clip was straining to hold all the sloppily-folded bills between. “Is this enough?”

“Where did you get all this?” Sofi felt her eyes go as big as saucers as Aspen handed her the clip. It was even heavier than it looked.

Aspen shrugged, like it was no big deal. Sofi supposed to her, it wasn’t - she was the princess of the richest damn kingdom in the North Blue, after all. “It’s mine. Money isn’t an issue.”

Sofi nodded, serious. “Getting out unnoticed is the issue.” Getting out unnoticed had once been easy. Priya and Anja were easily distracted by each other, and Aspen had made running circles around them into a sport. Ichiji, however, was no Priya or Anja. Musette, for all of Sofi’s jokes, would not be easy to extricate either. “God, Germa is a fucking blight.” Aspen scooted away from Sofi, letting her head dangle off the futon and onto the floor. Sofi raised an eyebrow at her as she let out a soft moan from the neck stretch. “You’re our resident psychic. You can’t use that to help us at all?”

Aspen let out a dramatic sigh. “How many times have we been over this? It’s not like waving a magic wand -”

“ - Except it totally fucking is -”

“ - I can undo the locks, I can get us all safely down from higher floors,” Aspen lifted a hand, tracing lazy circles in the air above her. “I can move heavy shit that I couldn’t physically budge at all, and I’m getting better at levitating. None of that will help us get to the train station without Ichiji noticing, or anyone else noticing and letting people know.”

Sofi couldn’t help but be disappointed. “You’ve been a psychic just about your whole fucking life and you haven’t tried seeing if you can fuck with someone’s head? Like, making it so they can’t see you, or creating some kind of spooky psychic barrier that would keep them from perceiving your presence?”

Aspen lifted her head and looked at Sofi like she was an idiot. “We just went over this magic wand shit, Sofi.”

God, psychic abilities were wasted on Aspen. If it had been _Sofi_ , that would have been the first thing she tried to do. She thought hard, crossing her legs beneath her, looking up at the sky though the plants and the glass. The sun was gone now, and clouds had moved in. Soon, it would start to snow. If they needed to sneak out of the palace without Ichiji noticing, first and foremost, he was the one they needed to plan around. “Do you know loverboy’s sleep schedule?”

“I guess…” Aspen mumbled, and Sofi saw her begin to redden.

“Ah, right, you two don’t do a whole lot of sleeping.” Sofi couldn’t resist taking a jab at Aspen, who had closed her eyes and turned a darker red. “Do you get any reliable openings to get away from him? Like any period of time daily where he’s not with you?”

“It took me a month to get this long enough of a window to come see you,” Aspen pointed out, sitting back up and rubbing her neck. “And I’m starting to think I’ve been away for too long and it’s only a matter of time before he comes looking for me…”

“A staff uniform!” The idea hit Sofi like lightning. It was fucking _genius_. “I’ll get Stitch to make you a staff uniform!”

Aspen, clearly missing the brilliance of the idea, stared at Sofi. “A...staff uniform?”

“Yeah! Who’s gonna look for the princess among the staff?” The more Sofi mused over it, the better the idea fit. “I’ve never seen Ichiji even look at a staffer, let alone talk to one. I’ll go see Stitch and ask him to tailor one of the stock ones on the fly for you, and I’ll sneak it into your room - the bathroom! I’ll hide it in the one cupboard with your period stuff. You change into it, sneak out of there, and we all meet at our old way out on the lower floor or the train station itself!” It was the perfect plan for getting Aspen out. Sofi couldn’t help but be in awe of herself. 

Aspen, who had looked doubtful initially, was actually starting to nod and look impressed. “That’s...a great plan, Sofi.” She smiled, and it made her whole face brighten. “That’s a really good idea.”

“Uh, what is with that incredulous tone?” Sofi smiled smugly, planting her hands firmly on her hips. It didn’t at all address how to get Musette out of the palace, but Aspen was the harder puzzle and now she was all but taken care of. “All of my plans are great.”

Snorting, Aspen got to her feet, casting a reluctant look to the path back out of the greenhouse. She looked sad. “I’ll put the marriage papers I stole in that cupboard too. Can you take them when you leave the uniform for me, and maybe pack for me, if it’s not too much trouble? I don’t think I’ll get an opportunity to. I need to head back now...before Ichiji comes looking.”

Sofi got up as well, grabbing Aspen and pulling her close, kissing her sweetly on the lips. Aspen kissed back, but something felt off to Sofi, and she broke the kiss off after a few moments, a peculiar feeling on her skin. When she pulled back, she saw Aspen was looking straight down at her feet. “Hey.” Sofi touched her chin, and tilted her face back up. Aspen’s eyes were shiny with tears. “Cut it out, crybaby. I’ll take care of _everything_ \- just like I always do.”

Aspen tried to force a smile, but the uncried tears remained. “I know you will.” One more kiss, this one closer to the kisses they used to share, and then she was gone. Sofi stood alone in the greenhouse, listening to Aspen as she re-entered the western wing proper as her footsteps trailed off. She gave her a few minutes head start, and then Sofi too followed, stopping to tuck her books into her bag and bringing it with her. Aspen’s money went into the front pocket, safely secured with a lock on the zipper.

On her brisk walk down to the tailors, Sofi couldn’t help but feel nervous and excited in equal measure. She hadn’t been to Neigebelle in so long! Neigebelle meant skiing, soaking in the hot springs, lazing around eating raclette and drinking hot chocolate. Sofi was pretty sure Musette had never even been to Neigebelle in the first place. _“Speaking of Musette,”_ Sofi thought to herself, feeling slightly vexed as she arrived back in the hub. _“How the hell am I going to get her away from the fucking gorilla?”_ Sofi had not seen him without Musette ever since her assignment to his staff - and after the brawl in the kitchen, she doubted he’d give her a moment alone. _“I wonder if it’s true that he beat someone up for her, and they kissed?”_

“Good afternoon, Sofi.” Stitch was alone in the tailor office, putting away some older bolts of fabric and collecting loose needles off the tables. His wavy brown hair was beginning to grow in longer, and he brushed a loose section out of his eyes as he smiled at her. “What’s it going to be today, miss? A dress, some new sweaters, maybe?”

“A fuck?” Sofi asked innocently, reaching a hand out and brushing her fingertips against the zipper of his pants. Stitch hardened within seconds, straining against the fabric of his pants, and Sofi giggled as he blushed darkly, looking around wildly to make sure they were alone. She was so lucky Aspen had told her about Stitch being fun to play with. “Just kidding, gorgeous. I’m in a crunch for time.”

Stitch quickly turned away, breaking into a choking fit of coughing. Internally, Sofi was cackling, but she settled for patting him sympathetically on the back. He recovered relatively fast, and he turned back to Sofi all-business - except for his still-red face. “For Musette?” He cleared his throat and straightened up, adjusting the dark grey button-up he always wore. “I already have new ones for her.”

“No, not Musette.” Though Sofi imagined she’d need one or two after the kitchen throwdown. Things had been bloody, and the outer wall of the kitchen was fucked too, she’d heard. The palace maintenance teams couldn’t simply patch it, the way it had broken - the whole thing apparently needed to be torn down and built back up. It was covered in multiple layers of heavy tarp, but everyone could feel the chill blowing into the palace from the kitchens. _“It’s probably a very good idea to get Musette out of here for a bit,”_ Sofi thought wisely. There was also word Aspen had fired the kitchen staff collectively - and now Germa’s people were in the palace too. Sofi cursed herself for not asking Aspen about that. “I need it for Aspen. Can you do that, and quickly?”

Stitch raised an eyebrow, looking confused. “Her royal highness?” Stitch plucked a small black book from his breast pocket, and flipped through a few pages. “I have her measurements here and we always have a surplus of staff uniforms...I can do it and make the adjustments but it might not be ready until tomorrow afternoon. I was given a few rush dress orders -”

Sofi sighed as she set her bag down on the table. Clearly, Stitch was not understanding the urgency of the situation - and she was reluctant to disclose why it was a rush. “I need it in like, two hours tops.” Sofi crossed her arms, grasping at the bottom of her blush pink top. “I can’t wait until tomorrow.”

“But Princess Reiju put in a request for a few evening gowns for -”

Sofi pulled her top up, and felt the cool air of the tailor office against her skin. As she was alone more and more, and skipping mealtimes, she had taken the opportunity to go braless whenever possible. Like right then. Stitch’s argument died in his throat, and Sofi listened as he made wordless protests, his mouth opening and closing over and over. His eyes were glued to her chest. “See, aren’t these nice?” She grasped her tits with her hands, trailing her fingertips on her skin and gently tweaking her nipples. Stitch’s eyes widened further. “I know you remember how nice these are. Get the uniform ready by seven and I promise I’ll get you back real soon.”

Looking ready to collapse, Stitch nodded eagerly, and Sofi dropped her top back down, getting up on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek. He wouldn’t disappoint - he knew she was always good on her word. She left him to his work and stopped back in her room, dropping off her books and bundling up in her winter wear for a trip uptown. Mace saw her off to the trolley stop just down the road from the palace, warning her to be back before it’s too late. “I wouldn’t want to see you locked out in the cold, your grace,” he had chuckled, though his eyes were serious.

Sofi’s primary motivation for spending more than half the year away from her family in the royal palace was Aspen - naturally. The second reason was the capital. There was almost no lull in the hustle and bustle, and Sofi loved a chance to fall in with the crowd - regular people, tourists, Marines, pirates - they could all be found in Snøvanger. Trolleys were plentiful, zipping from place to place along set tracks in the roads, and both the roads and the sidewalks were heated to discourage accumulation of snow and ice. Sofi had always loved how toasty it felt under her feet. Once she was on the correct trolley, a good number of people recognized her - she was the young duchess of Åker, after all - and they gave her bows and cheerful well-wishes.

The train station was one of the largest buildings in uptown Snøvanger, built out of solid marble, its facade consisting of smooth columns that cut toward the sky. People were streaming in and out of the rotating doors, chatting happily with one another, but this was the first time Sofi could recall seeing so much security. Several members of the local police as well as the royal military were stationed both inside and out, eyeing anyone who lingered too long by the doors. Sofi spotted several signs on her way to the ticket desk, passing under elevated walkways for the train platforms on the upper level: NO HATS, HOODS, OR MASKS PERMITTED INSIDE SNØVANGER STATION. Nervously, Sofi removed her cloche hat as she approached the ticket counter.

“Oh, that sign doesn’t apply to you, duchess.” The woman behind the counter was lilac-haired and plump, and she gave Sofi a warm smile as she inclined her head. “Everyone in Snøvanger knows who _you_ are. How may I help you today?”

Sofi smiled back, but still felt nervous. Was it all over the cultists? “What are the next few train times to Neigebelle? I didn’t happen to catch it on the information board.”

The woman picked up a piece of silver paper on her desk. “We have a six o’clock, a ten o’clock, and a two o’clock - that’s two in the morning, your grace.”

“Which is usually the emptiest?” Sofi had an inkling it would be the latest one, and that would be perfect if so. _“A really late train would make it easier to get us all out.”_

“That would be the two o’clock, your grace.”

“Then could I please have three tickets for the two am train to Neigebelle, please?” Sofi fumbled with Aspen’s money clip and handed a wad of bills to the woman, who politely took them and smoothed them out. Sofi waited and listened to the bustle around her as the tickets printed, with people coming and going at the other ticket counters all around her. All their heads were blurring together, all brown, black, blue, and blonde, as they moved altogether.

“I’m sorry, miss, we’ve discontinued travel to Altest and Drammen for the time being…”

“Welcome to Snøvanger Station, your highness! Is this your first time…”

“The next train to St. Santigaard leaves in five minutes but the platform is on this floor, so if you hurry…”

Sofi was so engrossed in all the noise, she jumped slightly when she felt the stiff paper of the tickets being pushed against her fingers as they rested on the countertop. The woman smiled again and gave Sofi a proper bow. “Enjoy your trip, your grace.”

Hastily, Sofi made her way back to the palace, arriving with thirty minutes to spare until dinner. Back at the tailor office, Stitch had not disappointed - the uniform dress was ready for Aspen, zipped up into a garment bag along with a regulation staff coat and matching shoes. “For whatever it is you two are planning,” he whispered, winking and giving Sofi a kiss on the hand.

“If I didn’t have a bunch of other things that are urgent and pressing,” Sofi told Stitch bluntly. “I swear I would suck your cock right fucking now.”

Stitch went even more red than he had earlier as he turned back to his other work, laughing and waving her off. “Get me back later, as you already promised.”

The northern wing was quiet as Sofi made her way through the halls - it seemed Aspen and Ichiji had already gone down for dinner. Sofi could not shake the peculiar feeling that she was being watched, and she found herself looking around every couple of minutes, her heart racing and their hair on the back of her neck standing on end. Every footstep on the carpeted floor came off as loud no matter what Sofi did, and she casually made her way into her bedroom first, just in case Aspen’s bedroom was not empty. She discarded her coat, bag, and the tickets on her bed, holding the garment bag to her chest as she peeked out into the hall, bracing herself to encounter either Ichiji or Aspen. But Aspen’s bedroom door was open, and the room was empty. With one more look over her shoulder - and seeing nothing and no one - Sofi slipped into Aspen’s room.

For only a month to have passed, Aspen’s bedroom was dramatically different from how Sofi had recalled it. Gone were the messy mountains of clothes atop the cream colored carpet, and gone were the half-finished books Aspen would leave stacked on every surface. Everything was clean, spotless, and neat as a pin - the very antithesis of Aspen. The carpet looked freshly vacuumed, the bookshelves dusted, and even her eternally messy desk had been cleared - Sofi had not seen its desktop in years. Her bed was the only thing that looked as it had before - unmade and mounded in tangled blankets. Inside the walk-in closet, things were no better. Everything was hung neatly and was colored-coordinated, with the first half of the closet dominated in dresses and skirts in an array of red shades. 

Ignoring it all, Sofi grabbed one of Aspen’s travel bags from a shelf and started throwing clothes in, starting with an armful of leggings from a drawer. Further back in the closet, she found Aspen’s _normal_ attire - tops and sweaters in shades of grey, purple, and blue - and she tossed some of that into the bag as well. She moved quickly and quietly, not knowing how long she had before Ichiji and Aspen would return. Getting caught at this juncture would be more than problematic.

After snatching up some thick socks and as much underwear as Sofi could carry (it seemed all of Aspen’s normal underwear had been phased out in favor of outright lingerie), Sofi made a stop at Aspen’s bedside table. Everything Aspen used on a daily basis would be right here. _“She’ll kill me if I don’t get any of it for her,”_ Sofi thought, imagining Aspen’s angry face.

A bottle of general painkillers - a staple. It went in the bag. A small vibrator Sofi had bought her ages ago followed. A nondescript bottle from one of the local pharmacies was added to the bag, and then a topical cream for bruises - the one Wintergreen was so fond of. That had raised an eyebrow for Sofi ( _“Why would she need this at the ready?”)_ , and it had been raised even higher when she saw it accompanied four reusable gel ice packs. That made Sofi’s stomach feel sour - but in the bag it went anyway, and she made a mental note to ask Aspen about it later. With all the necessities addressed, Sofi zipped up the bag, and quietly snuck it over to her room for later.

Grabbing the garment bag with the staff uniform from where she’d left it by the bed, Sofi crept into Aspen’s bathroom, turning on the light at the lowest setting. By the toilet, there was a small, recessed cupboard set into the wall, home to heating pads and other period supplies. When Sofi pulled the doors of the cupboard open, a large envelope fell out with a sticky note attached to the front: _For the love of god, please don’t forget this_ . Sofi shoved the garment back inside, into the dark recesses, and grabbed the envelope. She left the bathroom quickly, switching the light back off, and made for the door. Before stepping out, she paused, and doubled back. Sofi rummaged around for a few minutes, feeling the sweat beginning to prickle on her forehead, and left with the envelope _and_ Aspen’s violin.

Feeling accomplished and excited, Sofi stepped back out into the hall. Without warning, her hair immediately stood on end again, and her heart skipped a beat. Someone was _definitely_ watching her. She was not alone in the northern wing. Barely resisting the urge to call out and ask who was there, Sofi stood, frozen, looking down the hall.

Nothing. No one.

Not wanting to push her luck any farther than she already had, Sofi tiptoed to her room, looking down every few seconds to ensure she had not somehow lost the envelope or the violin between Aspen’s bedroom door and hers. Of course, she had not - but she knew she could not be too careful. Once in her room, she pushed the door shut, locking it and pulling her desk chair against it. Aspen’s violin and the papers went on the bed, beside the tickets and Sofi’s bag. She listened for any noise in the hallway as she removed her own travel bag from the closet, and heard nothing. She still had to pack herself...and then it was time to handle Musette. Sofi had a strong feeling the gorilla would not make it easy.


	23. MUSETTE VI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- when two people with messed up childhoods collide

Musette sat at the vanity in her room, looking at her reflection as she brushed her hair out after a long day working. Her room was quiet and comfortingly dark aside from the small lamp on the table, and she had already changed from her uniform into pale green pajamas from Wintergreen that were nicer than any other clothes she owned. From what she saw in the mirror, it looked like the kitchen brawl from yesterday had not happened at all. The bruising had been cleared up first by Wintergreen, and it had taken several applications of the bruise cream to do the trick. There had been a large, dark bruise in shades of black and purple just in front of her right ear from Korovai’s first punch, and now it was gone - not a trace of it remained. Her skin wasn’t even tender to the touch anymore at that spot, when she touched her fingertips to it. The same was true of the bruising from the blow to her diaphragm, though it still hurt whenever Musette breathed deeply.

Her head still ached from Crema pulling on her braids, and from her untimely collision with the kitchen floor. It was nothing Wintergreen could not handle, though, and she gave Musette a cocktail of different medications to combine with what she already took. Something for the pain, something for her exposure to all that blood, and something to help her sleep. Musette had told Wintergreen about the memories from her childhood that had popped up in her head during the fight - and that had worried her. “These pills will help you sleep without dreaming,” Wintergreen had assured her in private, in the sterile infirmary where nobody had been allowed to follow. Musette had changed into a thin exam gown, her hair undone and the blood washed from her body, and she sat on a cot while Wintergreen cared for her. “You don’t have to take them if you don’t want to, but I don’t want you suffering nightmares in silence.”

There hadn’t been nightmares the night before, though - even with Musette skipping that pill. Only dreams of kisses, and strong arms around her waist that held her tight. Even with her persistent good moods, Musette did not wake up happy most days - and she’d woken up happy that morning. _“So much for that,”_ Musette thought, breathing a sigh that sent a twinge of pain through her belly.

Her day had been tense and strange, to say the absolute least. She had awoken from her night in the palace infirmary to find that Germa’s staff had been brought in to replace the kitchen staff. Aspen had summarily fired all of them in retaliation for Musette’s beating, and the remaining original palace staff had not taken well to the change. Everyone seemed afraid to approach Musette after hearing what had taken place, but the dark glares from out of the corners of her eyes intensified, and she knew they were still whispering about her when she wasn’t around. Germa’s staff, for their part, had been perfectly pleasant to Musette, and she already favored them over the primary palace staffers. She didn’t mind if they stayed.

Musette paused from her brushing, pumping a small amount of the hair oil Sofi had gifted her into her palm and working it into her golden hair from root to ends. It smelled like patchouli, and it was soothing. The staff had been one issue. The other was Yonji, who had barely spoken to her the entire day. He had been strangely distant and quiet, very much not like his regular talkative self. When he did look at her, she could not decipher his stares, and Musette had resorted to avoiding eye contact all together. It had made her sad, in spite of herself. She was almost relieved when Yonji had made the decision to go to bed early.

 _“Why does it matter?”_ Musette scolded herself, pulling an elastic from her wrist as she made her way to her bed, still made neatly with pillows that didn’t flatten no matter how long she sat against them. She climbed up, slipping between the sheets. _“He’s my charge, not my -”_

There came a light tap at her door. “Musette?” The whisper was unmistakably Sofi’s, and the door cracked open. From her lamp’s dim light, she could see a mess of curls in the open crack of the door. “Are you up?”

“I’m up.” Musette sat up, resting her back against the silken pillows. Sofi quietly slipped right in, pushing the door closed as she held the knob, keeping it from making a sound as it latched. Grinning excitedly, Sofi speedily tip-toed over to her, dressed in clothes more suited to going outside than going to bed soon. She was wearing a knee-length cream skirt of tiered lace, with thick ribbed tights beneath in a shade of grey. Musette could see she had liberally layered her upper body with what looked like an undershirt, top, and heavy pink sweater as well. On top of everything, she had a long, thick cardigan thrown over top. Musette narrowed her eyes in suspicion, fully aware something was up. “What’s going on?”

Sofi’s smile kept getting bigger, and Musette suppressed a groan. A smile like that would only mean a terrible plan. She rummaged through her sweater pockets, pulling out a small rectangle of what looked like cardstock. Sofi leaned over to Musette and pressed it into her palm. Squinting at the paper, Musette held it up to her eyes, facing towards her lamp.

“A...train ticket?” _That_ was a new one. Musette had not really expected that. As she examined the ticket closer, she could see that Sofi was practically vibrating with excitement, bouncing on the bed, her curls wiggling. “It’s to...Neigebelle? At two in the morning? As in five fucking hours from now, Sofi?”

“It’s for you!” Sofi was ecstatic, and in no way deterred by the disapproving frown on Musette’s face. She struggled to keep her voice down as she tried to explain, bouncing in place even faster. “Throw some clothes together, it’s gonna be a two week thing at the least - and for the first few days, it’ll be just you, me, and Aspen! No Vinsmokes or Nexus or anybody for a good bit!” 

Musette felt her head beginning to hurt quite a bit again.

“Aspen says she needs a break from that red-haired asshole,” Sofi went on, leaning in and whispering like they were planning a prison break. “They’re gonna end up all following us up anyway but there’s a special precedent to give us a few days without. Yonji will survive just _fine_ without you for a couple days,” Sofi added, seeing the frown deepen on Musette’s face as she set the ticket on the bed beside her, crossing her arms. “You’ve never even been to Neigebelle! Hot chocolate, delicious food, hot springs, how are you making such a goddamn grumpy face right now??”

“Sofi, I _can’t,”_ Nervous, Musette looked over at her bathroom door, which was shut. It was all that separated her bedroom from Yonji’s - what if he overheard? “My job is here.”

“Aspen is your boss’s boss,” Sofi reminded her with a frustrating wink. “This order comes right down from her - and it is an order.” Musette very much doubted that - Aspen had joked, but she had never given a true order to Musette in the years she’d been at the palace. “We need to get your stuff together and then we’re gonna meet her at the lower floor of the northern wing, where those locked doors are. Probably by like, 1. If we’re late, we have to meet her at the train station, but I don’t like the idea of jumping from that balcony without her.”

It didn’t matter, of course, there was no way she could go. “Yonji will lose his _shit_ if I pull an Aspen and vanish without a word,” Musette hissed, getting upset. She didn’t feel right just up and leaving - Ichiji might deserve that from Aspen, but Yonji didn’t deserve that from Musette at all.

Sofi rolled her eyes, getting off the bed. Musette was surprised - Sofi did not usually give up without a fight - but then she saw her heading for the closet instead of the door. “Yonji can fucking make do without you for a couple days. If you’re not going to pack, I’ll pack for you.” As she opened the door to the closet, Musette saw the light turn on in the bathroom. Panicking, she vaulted out of bed and pushed Sofi into the closet, slamming the door behind her.

“Musette?” The bathroom door opened, and Yonji poked his head into her room. His hair was still wet from his shower, and hung down against his neck. He was dressed for bed in black pajama pants and a plain white shirt that was just the right amount of tight over his chest and biceps. “Are you talking to someone?”

“Myself,” Musette lied reluctantly, back to the closet door and leaning back hard. She couldn’t believe she was once again in this situation with Sofi - though Sofi, it seemed, was not trying to get out this time. She gave a polite bow to Yonji out of habit. “I hope I didn’t wake you up, my lord.”

“We’ve _talked_ about that.” Yonji reminded her with a wave of his hand, his brow furrowing. 

“I’m sorry.”

“I can’t sleep.” He leaned against the doorframe, looking around Musette’s room with an awkward look - different from his usual self-assured and smug expression. He kept crossing and uncrossing his arms, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

Musette felt awkward herself, still put off from how their interactions had been all during the day. “Would you...like to sit with me, until you’re tired enough to go to bed? It may be better than being alone in your room.” She cringed as the suggestion came out of her mouth. How _presumptuous_ of her. “I’m sorry, I mean -”

Yonji’s awkwardness evaporated as he happily got into Musette’s bed, sitting on top of the comforter against her pillows. Feeling her face flushing (which it was perpetually in a state of doing), Musette took a step away from the closet, worried still about Sofi. It was the worst possible time for her to come exploding out - so it was almost guaranteed to happen. Luckily, though, Sofi remained silent on the other side of the door. Musette let out a quiet sigh of relief as she came and sat on the foot of her bed, across from Yonji. Seeing him in her bed looking as happy as he did gave her a nervous but not altogether bad feeling.

As she sat down, she fiddled with her hands nervously, unable to come up with anything to talk about. Yonji seemed to be struggling for a conversation topic as well, looking tense despite still smiling. “So…” He finally started, after a few minutes of nervously bouncing his leg up and down on the bed. “Did they fix you? After yesterday? They wouldn’t let me come to the infirmary to see you.”

“More or less, yes.” Not once had Yonji ever before asked about her health or well-being; Musette had simply assumed the thought never crossed his mind. Absently, she touched at her belly where it was still sore, and her muscles twitched. “They were able to take care of the bruises but I’m on medicine for everything else. They said I’ll be alright.” She did not bring up the memories that had resurfaced during the fight.

“Good!” Yonji blurted out, visibly relaxing and un-tensing his shoulders. He looked noticeably relieved at the news. “I mean, you know, if it had been _me_ , it wouldn’t have gone that far in the first place...the kitchen would probably be completely destroyed too, but I wouldn’t have gotten as hurt as you did.”

Musette giggled before she could catch herself, hiding her mouth behind a hand. Of course he would turn it into a bragging moment. Still, it did sound like he had been worried about her. “I’m sure it wouldn’t have. They would have thought twice before coming after you. You didn’t have to worry about me, though, even if it had been worse, they would’ve found someone else to be your personal assistant.”

Yonji, who had been smiling until that point, scowled angrily. “I don’t _want_ them sticking me with someone else. I want _you._ ” He paused, looking slightly embarrassed from his outburst ( _Has he ever been embarrassed before?”_ Musette wondered), and leaned back against the pillows once more. “And you should be sitting up at the head of the bed with me, not sitting down there so far away.”

From the closet, Musette could hear a faint, muffled sound. Yonji noticed it too, and he started to sit up, looking for where the sound had come from. Musette scrambled up the bed, hoping to catch him before he could get up and find Sofi. Her arms sank into the soft blankets and mattress, sending her falling forward directly onto his lap. It looked like he’d been waiting for that all along, and he swiftly drew her towards him and into his arms, setting her into a sitting position, sideways on his lap. Musette froze in place, face burning with the full heat of the sun, wondering whether to pull away or not. _“Let’s see where this goes,”_ she thought, heart beginning to beat considerably faster. 

She shifted her weight on top of him for a better look at his face, and heard the crinkling of papers beneath her. “Do you have something in your pockets?” Musette asked, confused, trying not to let on how much being right up on him was getting to her. Being pressed against him yesterday had been good, but it felt better now that neither of them were covered in blood. It was easier for her to appreciate the almost woodsy smell of his skin.

“Hm?” Yonji, distracted and fully wide-eyed at Musette on his lap, stuck his hand into the pocket of his pants and pulled out crumpled pieces of notebook paper. Musette could make out messy handwriting that was a step above illegible: _speak gently, don’t yell, ask about her day, don’t insult her (important!!!)._ He set the papers on the bedside table without a second glance. “I thought I’d left those somewhere.”

“What...is it?” Musette was confused. _“What kind of notes could those even be?”_ She thought, tilting her head and trying to get a better look at them. There were at least four pages of front and back notes, but Yonji’s handwriting was hard to read even without the terrible lighting in her bedroom.

“Oh, it’s nothing. They’re notes I took when I talked to Reiju. They’ve helped a lot.” Yonji’s answer was breezy and unconcerned. He had a hand resting in the small of Musette’s back, and she was acutely aware of every finger through her pajama top, and the heat from his palm. His thumb moved back and forth, brushing against her.

His answer was only even more confusing, but Musette was slowly beginning to put two and two together as she’d thought about what she had managed to read. _“Are those notes on how to speak to me?”_ She thought to herself, heart beating harder and feeling incredulous. To him, she asked, “Helped how?”

Yonji’s face screwed up in concentration, making him look as though he had a headache. “I talked to Reiju because...I dunno...I feel like I want to treat you differently than I do? But I don’t know how.”

“You...want to treat me differently?” Musette wasn’t sure what to make of that, and she dropped her gaze to her lap, lest he notice just how red she was becoming. A red face with her golden hair was not attractive. Her hair, which she had not gotten a chance to tie back, fell into her face like a solid curtain as she felt her pulse double once more. She didn’t know what to make of it - but she knew she did not like having the conversation happening with Sofi only feet away, undoubtedly listening to every single word.

 _“Sofi,”_ Musette thought, panic spiking again. She had almost completely forgotten about Sofi in the closet. There was no telling how long Yonji was planning on sticking around. Musette peeked out of the corner of her eye for the clock, straining to make it out through her hair. It was already almost 11 - Musette nearly did a double take. _“How has so much time passed?”_ Still hiding behind her hair, she nervously mumbled, “I’m not really sure what you mean by that.”

Yonji laughed, and she could feel the vibrations through his chest. “Reiju said you’d be confused if I tried to tell you. She was confused too, when I tried to talk to her - but she figured out what I was saying fast enough.” He paused, frowning. “It’s weird. I’ve felt different almost since we first got here. I don’t know why.”

Thinking briefly of Nexus and whatever it was he’d given Yonji and his brothers, Musette laughed nervously and louder than she intended. Yonji didn’t notice.

“It feels good-weird, though. I felt it a little bit the first day I was here, when we were in the sauna and I grabbed your ass -”

There was another muffled bang in the closet, and Musette nearly jumped off of Yonji’s lap. She recalled then, anxiously, that she had never exactly told Sofi about that incident. Yonji, thankfully, was too distracted to notice.

“It was something about the way you grabbed my arms and yelled at me.” Again he paused, clearly struggling for the right words. Musette’s heart thumped loudly in her chest as she wished this conversation had taken place at any point before Sofi had shown up. Admittedly, being in his arms was a comforting distraction, and Musette wished it had happened the previous night. “It was...weird, but good. And the more time I spent with you, I kept getting more of those weird-good feelings. I mean, it used to just happen when I looked at your tits, but now it happens when you smile, or when you laugh. It still happens when I look at your tits but there are other times too, I mean.”

Musette nodded slowly, pieces coming together fully in her head. _“So that’s what he means,”_ she thought, still not believing it. Being so close, she could feel his heart begin to beat faster as well.

“Anyway, yeah, so I talked to my sister and I took notes on what she said about it. She told me they’d help.” He was beginning to ramble again. “So -”

Hoping beyond hope that it was the correct response, Musette pushed her long hair out of her face and gently kissed him on the cheek. For being all solid muscle all over his body, his skin was soft against her lips. “I make you feel good and you asked Reiju for help on treating me better, like a way of returning the favor?” 

“Yes.” The relief in his voice was evident, and he was even beginning to blush where she had kissed him. Musette wouldn’t have thought he was capable, were she not seeing it with her own eyes. 

“Yonji, you don’t have to go out of your way to treat me differently.” Musette still couldn’t wrap her head fully around it. Did he not know how to be nice to people he liked, or how to even go about being nice? He had gone to his sister for help on how to be nice to Musette - that alone blew her mind. “I’m with you every day and you’re more than nice enough -”

“I want to treat you _better_ than how I’m treating you right now,” he argued, growing redder with each passing moment. He was even beginning to stammer. “You’re a servant, I know, but I want to - I dunno - treat you better than a servant. I don’t know why.”

Another bang came from the closet, louder than before. Yonji again turned his head towards the closet, an eyebrow raised, and started to get up. _“Fucking damn it, Sofi!”_ Musette thought, completely certain she had to be doing it on purpose. At this point, it would be very bad if Yonji found Sofi, after everything they’d been talking about. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Musette grabbed his face the same way she had in the kitchens, kissing him passionately.

Just as eagerly as he had the first time, he kissed her back, his arms holding her protectively to his chest. Musette’s panic was quickly forgotten as she melded against him, turning her chest to his and placing one knee on either side of his lap. However, he seemed to have a different idea, and shortly after she found herself beneath him. Closing her eyes, she slipped her hands through his hair, feeling how damp it was between her fingers as they continued to kiss, his tongue against hers and a hand on her body. 

Shyly, Musette broke off after a few minutes, and moved to kiss at his neck. It felt _right_ , but she couldn’t shake feeling self-conscious. _“I don’t know what I’m doing,”_ she thought, slightly distressed. Yonji, however, did not appear to mind at all, readily returning the favor and kissing from her jaw up to her ear. The kisses on her earlobe made her body begin to tremble, and he held her tightly until she stopped.

“Musette,” he murmured, nuzzling against the side of her face. The way he said her name made Musette’s heart stop for a moment. Had he always said her name in such a way? She moved her mouth back to his to kiss him more, hanging onto his shoulders. He shifted his weight, repositioning the arm he was using to support himself over her, and Musette heard the unmistakable crumpling of paper. As Musette opened her eyes, she saw, to her horror, Yonji picking up the train ticket from Sofi and looking at it with a confused face.

“Yonji,” Musette felt like she’d been doused in cold water as she immediately proceeded forward with damage control. This was _precisely_ the scenario she’d wanted to avoid - she could’ve kicked herself for leaving the ticket sitting right on the goddamn bed. Yonji pulled away from her, twisting back into a sitting position as he held the train ticket, face going from confused to furious. Musette’s panic spiked. “Please, it’s not what you think -”

“How is a train ticket to some town I’ve never heard of, right in the dead of night, not what I think it is?” He thundered, voice thick with anger. Musette hurriedly pulled herself upright as well, trying frantically of how she could calm him down. “You can’t just _leave_. You’re on _my_ staff, you can’t just take off like that without consulting me.”

Musette tried to explain, though she knew it wouldn’t placate Yonji even the slightest bit. “It’s not my call, I promise. It’s coming directly from Aspen. I can’t ignore an order from the princess." She was grateful Sofi had given her that line to throw out. "It would only be for five days and then you could -”

“And what am I supposed to do without _you_ for five days?” He crossed his arms across his chest like an ill-tempered child, and his face was in a full, angry pout. “You didn’t even tell me about this. Why wouldn’t you tell me?”

“I’m telling you _now_ ,” Musette stressed.

Yonji seemed to think of something, and he perked up slightly. “Is this because of yesterday? Are you worried people are going to retaliate against you, since Aspen fired the entire kitchen staff?”

The thought of direct retaliation from the former kitchen staff had not, in fact, crossed Musette’s mind up until that point. She felt herself going pale. Yonji took both of her hands in his, setting the train ticket down on the bedside table with his notes. “Listen, I’m being completely honest when I say -”

Musette, distracted, looked at their hands together. Had her hands always been so small?

“ - I am _always_ willing to throw more people through walls for you,” he finished, almost sounding giddy at the thought. 

“That’s…thank you.” She supposed it was the closest Yonji could get towards a romantic gesture. It was certainly the sweetest thing he’d offered her so far, however violent and misguided it was. Yonji’s excitement turned back into anger when he saw it still had not changed Musette’s mind.

“You said it’s coming from Aspen?” Yonji gripped Musette’s hands, still being careful not to hurt her, and he stiffened as he sat up straight. He got a smug look, pulling out an offer Musette could not refuse. “You stay, or I’m telling Ichiji. There's no way she told _him_ about this.”

“Don’t!” Musette begged, feeling like he’d put her stomach in a vice. She could not imagine what would happen if Ichiji found out about Aspen’s plan. He had been angry enough when she’d disappeared from dinner, and she had at least stayed somewhere in the palace when that happened. Judging from the infuriatingly satisfied smirk on his face, Yonji in no way grasped the ramifications of Ichiji catching Aspen trying to run away. “You know he’ll react badly, please don’t do that to Aspen.”

This time, it was Yonji’s turn to tilt his head at her in a confused way. “What does it matter? They’re engaged. Father says that means Ichiji makes the decisions for her, like he did for our mother.” His tone was emotionless and matter-of-fact, giving Musette slight chills. Had his father indeed said such a thing? How did Yonji not realize how _insane_ that sounded? “I want you to stay. Ichiji will keep Aspen from leaving. If you don't want that, then _you_ have to stay.”

Musette felt anger welling up inside her, but her pity for Yonji was more overpowering. It was very clear he thought his negotiation tactics were normal - he didn’t seem the slightest bit ashamed, essentially blackmailing her by threatening Aspen. Musette couldn’t imagine what kind of upbringing his father had given him if he thought _that_ was normal. She couldn't let him go on thinking that was the right way to get what he wants - but that talk would have to come at a later time. Her eyes darted back at the clock as her pulse hammered in her ears. Somehow, it was now after midnight. There were less than two hours before she was expected to be on that train with Aspen and Sofi, who was still trapped in the closet. If she left, Yonji would tell Ichiji, and she doubted any of them would get away. The thought of seeing Yonji’s older brother angry scared her.

If she did stay, though...Aspen had to have a reason for taking her in the first place, beyond their friendship. Aspen knew how much Musette valued her job, and had seldom interfered. If she didn’t want Musette left at the palace with Nexus and the Vinsmoke family, waiting to join her and Sofi in Neigebelle, then Musette had to assume it was for a very good reason. She couldn’t think of what the reason would be.

Yonji looked at her expectantly as she sat, legs crossed, staring down at her hands. “Well? What do you choose?”

Really, there was only one option, and Musette knew it. She took a deep breath, her chest stretching against the buttoned front of her pajama top. The fabric was still cool against her skin, and it helped calm her down the slightest bit. Closing her eyes, she took Yonji’s hands in hers. “I don’t have an answer,” Musette started slowly, praying her plan would work. “But I have a compromise.”


	24. ASPEN VI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Teleworking has given me plenty of time to both write and edit  
> \- Thank you so much for sticking with me through all of this so far! We're not even at the halfway mark but I appreciate it.  
> \- ETA: smut warning

Upon her return from dinner with Ichiji, Aspen was relieved to see that Sofi had come through and packed for her. The items purposely left on the bedside table had been taken, her underwear drawers were empty (overkill, sure, but better than nothing), and even her violin was missing. Sofi had even made the effort to pack in a way that didn’t make the room look messy - Ichiji was absolutely none the wiser. _“Thank god for Sofi,”_ Aspen thought to herself as she took off her cape, hanging it on a hook beside her gilded trifold mirror while Ichiji sat on the bed to take his shoes off. All that was left were the papers Aspen had left for Sofi - and to make sure Sofi had left the staff uniform, as planned. Aspen was feeling better about her plan already, but seeing those factors addressed would be an added relief.

She had scarcely turned in the direction of the bathroom when she felt hands on her shoulders from behind, pulling her back. Ichiji pressed his body against hers, then released her shoulders to slip both hands beneath her shirt. It had been well-established what was coming next. Minutes later, she had been stripped from the waist up as he roughly fondled her tits, pinching her nipples as he leaned forward to bite hard at her neck. His breath was hot, and it sent shivers down her spine.

“I...I need to go to the bathroom,” Aspen insisted, trying to pull away.

Ichiji acted as though she hadn’t spoken at all as he tugged her leggings to her knees, slipping a foot between her legs to push them the rest of the way down. He caught her earlobe between his teeth and bit down. Aspen’s breathing was rapidly growing heavy like his, but she still winced as he put his hand down the front of her lacy underwear, tearing it a bit as he curled his fingers and shoved them inside her. She was getting wet, but she wasn’t quite wet enough for how big his fingers were, and how many he pushed in. Aspen knew better than to protest. When he pulled his hand away a few minutes later, she silently got to her knees and began unbuttoning his pants. Ichiji had made it clear time and time again what was expected of her - and that there would be problems if she did not acquiesce. 

The initial transition from the treatment Aspen was used to receiving from Sofi to how Ichiji preferred to handle her had been a hard pill to swallow. Their first night together had certainly been a sign of how he did things - as hard as he liked, whenever he liked, whether Aspen liked it or not. It hurt more than it ever felt good, but Aspen had developed ways of handling it. Fighting didn’t work. Pleading didn’t work. The sooner she just did as he demanded and gave him what he wanted, the less likely it was that Ichiji would draw out a single session. The less time it took, the higher the chance Aspen could swallow a handful of painkillers and some wine before he could bend her over the bed again. Hiding from him didn't work. Pretending to be asleep didn't work.

Aspen had undressed him and held him in her mouth for scarcely any time at all before he picked her up, grabbing her ass with both hands. Knowing full well exactly how it was about to go, Aspen put her arms behind his neck, clasping her hands together tightly. Her heart was pounding as she leaned forward, face against his chest, breathing in the smell of his skin. The initial anxiety and dread could never be avoided. Aspen never knew if just her body on its own would be good enough to satisfy him, or if Ichiji would be driven to hurt her. He enjoyed both in equal measure.

Without fanfare, he squeezed her ass tightly in his hands as he shoved himself into the hilt, bottoming out fully on the first thrust. Aspen’s body went fully stiff from the shock, but she quickly recovered, hesitantly wrapping her legs around his waist and closing her eyes as she held herself still against his chest. _“The harder it is to see him,”_ Aspen reasoned with herself as he started groaning, squeezing her even tighter. _“The easier it is to pretend he’s someone else.”_ Aspen’s go-to had always been thoughts of Sofi. Sofi, with her soft curls, sweet mouth, and unfailingly gentle touch. More and more, though, she found herself thinking of someone else entirely.

The tighter his hands gripped her, the more Aspen’s thoughts drifted to a set of different hands - ones that had gently trailed on her cheek, brushed against her collarbone, and stroked her hair. Even thinking about it gave her body a warm, pleasant feeling, and she let out a gentle gasp as she squeezed her legs around him. The thrusting was hard, fast, and deep. It hurt, and she was not nearly as wet as she needed to be. She could get there quickly, if she let her thoughts go where they were heading anyway.

 _“You’re going to get us both in a lot of trouble…”_ Clear as a bell, Aspen could imagine his deep voice in her ear, and the spicy smell of his skin. She could feel herself growing slicker as the thrusts continued to batter her. Aspen carefully dropped a hand down between her legs, rubbing at her clit. Her skin was wet on contact, from sweat and other juices, but it made her fingers glide more easily. _“The trouble would be well worth it.”_

The more she touched herself, the more her muscles began to tense. She gripped harder at the cock that was now sliding in and out of her easily, and that was beginning to feel very nice too. Aspen’s breaths became ragged as she rubbed faster at her clit, feeling how small and hard it was against her fingertips. Soon she was moaning too, and with that, she felt herself being laid back on her bed. The velvet duvet tickled the damp skin on her back as her legs were pointed towards the ceiling, her feet resting against a shoulder.

_“You’re a perfect match for me, and I know you see it.”_

“Yes,” Aspen gasped, hardly aware she was speaking aloud. Now that both hands were free, she moved one up her body, feeling the hot, sweaty skin as the speed and force of the thrusts doubled, shaking her. Her nipples were hard to the touch, and it sent more waves of pleasure through her body. Droplets of sweat were dripping onto her, and some of it landed in her open mouth. “Yes, yes. _God_ , yes.”

She was close. So close. There was one last, hard thrust deep into her, and a loud eruption of groans. Her knees were pushed down into her shoulders, sending a burning ache in her muscles from her thighs to her lower back. The skin on skin contact was hot and wet, and Aspen could taste the salt from the sweat on her tongue. Inside her, she felt the wetness tripling, and it was impossibly hot. Barely able to move anymore from the weight of the body against hers, Aspen pressed her fingers down hard into her clit.

The pleasure exploded over her with the ferocity of a snow squall, locking the air in her lungs while her hips bucked, still managing to hold the cock inside her with renewed force, like a vice. It was truly _so good_. Aspen had not felt so good in a long time. She pressed her head back into the bed hard, her back arching. “Oh my god. Oh god. Ni -”

Aspen’s eyes snapped open and a hand shot up to cover her mouth before it was too late. Ichiji’s face was only inches from hers, both of her legs the only thing separating them. He was panting heavily, his red hair limp from all the sweat, and - thankfully - his eyes were closed. Even so, her misstep had not gone fully noticed. “What did you just say?” He asked, his breathing still hard and uneven.

“Nothing,” Aspen answered, keeping her voice calm and breathy as she looked him in the eyes and lied. “It was just a sound, not words.”

Ichiji’s eyes narrowed, but he did not ask any follow-up questions. He slowly got off of Aspen, freeing her legs as he pulled out of her. Everything he’d just left inside of her started gushing out, and she could feel it puddling beneath her ass on the bed. It was hot and sticky, and trying to wipe some of it away with a hand only made things worse. Ichiji didn’t spare Aspen as much as a second glance as he walked away, picking up a dark red robe from the chaise lounge, slipping it on. Aspen sat up, and could feel herself leaking more.

Standing up slowly, Aspen could fully feel how intensely he had battered her. Not for the first time, she could feel a not insignificant amount of pain inside her, and it ached with every step she took towards the bathroom. Her hips felt tense and achy from how he had bent her, and come was dripping out of her more and more, running down the insides of her thighs and falling into the carpet. Aspen tried not to look. Just as with the first time, Ichiji did not like how messy it was. _“At least he doesn’t tell me to clean myself up anymore,”_ Aspen thought, remaining quiet and expressionless until she had shut and locked the bathroom door behind her. _“It’s just expected that I will.”_

Quickly, Aspen ran over to her favorite tub, the second smallest in the whole bathroom. It wasn’t far from the door, and was big enough to accommodate at least three people (Aspen had only ever tested it with herself and Sofi). It was recessed into the floor, with benches running along the inside on all four sides, and the bottom was mosaic tile. Fully filled, there was no soak more satisfying in the palace. Aspen squatted down by each of the four taps, with one on each side of the tub, turning them all on full blast. The roar of the water was terrifically loud, echoing all around the bathroom. Even if Ichiji was outside the door listening, he would hear nothing.

With one more quick peek at the door, Aspen let out the loudest sigh of relief and slumped against the wall. She had come closer than ever to saying someone else’s name during sex. So close. She couldn’t believe how stupid she was. Ichiji already didn’t need a reason to choke her - Aspen couldn’t imagine how badly he would have hurt her if she’d fully blurted out a name other than his mid-orgasm. _"On the bright_ _side_ ," Aspen thought to herself, making her way to the cabinet she and Sofi had agreed on earlier. " _He'll never know who I was thinking of."_

The large envelope she’d left with the Vinsmoke family’s copy of the marriage agreement was gone, to Aspen’s relief, and in its place was a large garment bag. Aspen unzipped it, peeking inside, and saw a staff dress (complete with half apron), white slip-on shoes, and one of the heavy winter coats that were regulation outerwear. Aspen hadn’t even _thought_ of a coat or shoes. Silently, she gave thanks for Stitch (and Sofi). She picked an elastic out of the cabinet as she slipped the bag back in, tying her hair up as she breathed deeply. The relief was freeing - she was so close to getting away.

Over the running water, Aspen heard a quiet but forceful knock at the door. “Aspen.”

 _“I just need to ditch my future husband,”_ Aspen thought, grimacing. She hurried back to the door, unlocking it and quickly submerging herself in the tub as she turned the taps off. “The door is open,” she called back. The tub had filled fast, and water was close to overtopping and flooding onto the floor. Aspen fiddled with her hair, tucking loose sections up into her bun. If she was going out into the cold later, wet hair was not an option.

Ichiji stepped into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He had stayed in his robe, though it was only loosely tied around his waist, opening enough that his bare chest was visible. Every muscle was defined, and Aspen could still make out sweat on his skin. She kept her eyes there as he stood by the tub; at least then he could not accuse her of not looking at him. He was staring right at her - she could feel it - but he said nothing.

Sinking lower into the hot water, Aspen crossed her legs and folded her arms over her tits. The more he stared, without a word, the more uncomfortable she felt. Ichiji had a way of making her feel like she had done something wrong - or that he was aware of any tricks she had up her sleeve. It ate at Aspen. _“But there’s no possible way he could know about this,”_ Aspen thought, reassuring herself. _“There’s no way he can know about tonight.”_ Gently, Aspen spoke to him. “Do you...need something?” She wasn’t interested in his answer, but she couldn't stand the way he stared without speaking.

He dropped his robe to his feet.

“Oh.” Aspen looked away, embarrassed. It was hard not to look, truthfully - he was still an attractive man, after all - but Aspen did not like that he could potentially use _her_ staring as justification to stare at her even more. It made sense in her head, anyway. He sat down in the tub directly next to her, putting an arm around her shoulders before she could scoot away. _“I guess this is...happening now.”_ Aspen thought miserably, feeling him lazily stroking his fingers on her shoulder. Ichiji did not like leaving her alone for any period of time anymore; he had not taken well to her last few vanishing acts. Bathroom trips were the only moment of peace she had anymore. Aspen could not shower alone, eat alone, and hadn’t been allowed to play her violin in a good bit either. He hated the sound of it, and as he was always with her now, well...

Ichiji caught one loose lock of her hair around a finger, twirling it slowly while he continued to stare. Aspen lowered her gaze to the water. Thankfully, the steam floating just above the water’s surface was thick enough to conceal her body. The urge to pull her hair away from him was strong, but she didn’t dare. They sat like that for what felt like ages, his arm firmly holding her in place and Aspen not bold enough to move it. Eventually, the steam dissipated, leaving the water completely crystal clear. It hid nothing, for him or her.

“Do you know when the last time you got yourself off in front of me was?” He finally asked, his voice as calm and indifferent as ever.

Aspen hesitated, unsure if it was a trick question or not.

“Never, Aspen.” Ichiji answered for her after a long moment of silence. “You have never done that in front of me.”

“Oh.” Aspen didn’t know what to say. She tried to lean away from him, and the hand on her shoulder pulled her closer. _“Does he want a fucking apology?”_

The finger twisting her hair stopped, and he brought a hand to her chin, lifting her face and forcing her to face him. His eyes studied her, not seeming as cold as they usually did - though Aspen didn’t notice any level of warmth, either. Aspen longed to look away. “You feel even better to me when you do that,” he explained, trailing his fingers down her chin to her neck. His open palm touched against the center of her throat, and then Aspen felt his thumb on one side and his fingers on the other. Ichiji closed his hand around her throat in a slow squeeze, and Aspen could feel her windpipe constricting. “I didn’t think it was possible for you to feel even tighter. I think we’re going to be doing that from now on.”

Aspen tried to nod, but couldn’t move her head with how strongly he was choking her. He leaned closer to her, and she could feel his hair touching her forehead as he pressed his mouth over hers. Trying with all her might not to retch, Aspen kissed back, reluctantly permitting his tongue into her mouth. _“Kissing him is far worse than fucking him,”_ she agonized internally, wishing for an escape.

“Excuse me, your royal highnesses.” There was a hard knock at the bathroom door right as Ichiji had begun groping Aspen again, toying with her tits through the bathwater as he kept a hand firmly around her neck. He relinquished her, whipping his head around angrily and glaring at the door. Aspen massaged her throat, closing her eyes in relief. The last time he’d fucked her in the bathroom, the bruises on her knees had made walking a challenge.

“It should go without saying that my fiancee and I are indisposed,” Ichiji answered, voice calm but notably furious. The muscles in his arms were tensing, making Aspen feel even more uneasy. “There had better be a good reason for this interruption.”

“Apologies, your highness.” The male voice - likely a staffer - sounded very old, and wheezed with every syllable. Aspen did not recognize it. “When I received no response at the princess’s bedroom door, I let myself in. Forgive me. Prince Niji sent me. He is insisting you come help him with matters in Germa.”

“In _Germa?”_ Ichiji asked sharply, his eyes narrowing in anger and suspicion. Aspen started to slowly back away from him in the water, and he shot his hand out and seized her wrist. He gave her a brief warning look. “What matters? I assume you _both_ know what time it is. It’s well past midnight.”

Hearing that made Aspen’s stomach clench hard. If Ichiji was telling the truth, she had less than an hour to get rid of him, get dressed, and make her way to the lower floor where Sofi and Musette would be waiting for her. And yet here she was, still naked, and only an errant staffer had stopped Ichiji from initiating a second round between the two of them. 

The staffer broke into a small coughing fit, and Aspen gave a nervous glance at Ichiji, who looked angrier with each passing second. He had boasted to Aspen in the past about Germa being so self-sufficient, they didn’t even need his family to oversee day to day life the way it was done in Hoarfrost. It certainly wasn’t clear what Niji could possibly need assistance with, particularly at this hour. _“Then again,”_ Aspen thought, daring to get her hopes up. _“If Niji needs something, that will give me time to get the hell out of here.”_

“His royal highness Prince Niji informed me it was none of my business, when I pressed him for details.” The staffer paused. “...But he did suggest you bring the Princess Aspen when you come to see him.”

Before Aspen could even begin to panic, Ichiji stood straight up and climbed out of the tub. Water splashed everywhere. “So he can disappear with my fiancee again? No. I will not. She will stay here.” He looked down at Aspen, who quickly looked back down at the water before he could see her smiling. “I will finish this quickly and she can warm our bed until I get back.”

 _“_ ** _My_ ** _bed,”_ Aspen longed to correct him.

“Very good, your highness.” The staffer wheezed, his chest sounding horribly tight and congested. “I will leave you to get dressed and I will tell Prince Niji to expect you shortly.” Aspen listened as her bedroom door opened and closed, breathing a deep internal sigh of relief. She had been moments away from being completely screwed.

Quietly seething in anger, Ichiji reached down and yanked Aspen straight out of the tub by her shoulder, sending more water all over the floor and catching her off-guard. Gritting her teeth through the pain, Aspen stayed silent as Ichiji threw open the bathroom door, pushing her ahead of him back into her bedroom. The sudden change in temperature had broken her skin out in goosebumps, and Aspen was beginning to shiver. Her room was always so cold. He shoved Aspen backwards onto the bed and she fell hard, her legs askew. She tried to sit up and he pushed her back down, placing a hand on each knee, forcing her legs wide open.

Ichiji locked his gaze with hers and Aspen could truly see how angry he was. Aspen held her breath, not daring to move or say a word as she looked up at his face. He betrayed little emotion in his features, the way his brothers did, but all his fury was held in his eyes. Not taking his eyes off hers, he moved a hand down from her knee to between her legs. “When I come back,” he warned, thrusting his fingers into her and forcing a gasp. “You had better be exactly as I’m leaving you now.”

Not daring to speak, Aspen gave him an obedient nod.

He said nothing else as he pulled his fingers out of Aspen, moving away from her to throw clothes on and leave quickly. Aspen remained on her back, as he ordered, listening as the bedroom door closed. In the hall, she could hear his muffled footsteps on the carpet, growing fainter and fainter as he moved away from her. When she could hear him no longer, Aspen sprang back up, grabbing her discarded bra and underwear from earlier off the floor and putting them both back on. Nervously, she looked up at the wall clock by her desk, and saw it was already half past midnight.

 _“How is it already_ **_so_ ** _late?”_ Aspen felt a hot jolt of anxiety and adrenaline in one as she tore back into the bathroom, slipping on the water she and Ichiji had dripped on the tile and nearly falling back into the tub. She made a beeline for the cabinet and pulled out the staff uniform from Sofi, hands shaking and fumbling as she pulled the dress on, looking anxiously back towards the door. If Ichiji were to have forgotten anything, and walked back in on her...she didn’t want to think about it. 

Aspen tugged the dress down into place. The fabric was thicker than she had anticipated - good for the weather outside. Sitting down to pull the shoes on, she could not begin to imagine what Ichiji would do to her if he caught her - particularly if she saw her now, dressed as a “servant.” It wouldn’t surprise her if he finally did resort to striking her in the face. His fiancee, dressed as a lowly servant? It would be the ultimate offense to Ichiji.

Throwing on the coat as well, Aspen left the bathroom, hurrying to where all her makeup and hair supplies still sat. She let her hair down, quickly pulling a comb through her hair and smoothing it all down with oil. Satisfied, she reached for the elastic again, and stopped. _“No. Everyone will expect that.”_ Instead, she picked out a neglected headband from a drawer, wrapped in a dark grey ribbon that was silky to the touch. The color was similar enough to her coat and dress. It slid onto her head easily, pushing her hair from her eyes. _“That’s much better.”_

It was just about time, now that she was dressed and as ready as she would ever be. There was one last important detail. Squatting down by her side of the bed, Aspen rolled up her sleeves and reached beneath the mattress, carefully feeling around for what she had hidden there the night before. She felt it and pulled her arm out, clutching in her hand a small envelope in a mint green shade, with _Nexus_ written on the front. Aspen set it name-up in the middle of her empty desk, knowing Ichiji would see it and bring it right to Nexus once he realized she was gone. As much as possible, she had done her due diligence with the letter. There would still be blowback from Ichiji and his father, but the letter would make things easier for Nexus. At least, she hoped it would.

 _“You’ll still have to answer to Ichiji in a few days,”_ she reminded herself as she faced her bedroom door, hand on the knob. It was something she already had to consider - but she needed a break from his relentless presence and there was no other way. And how else was she to review the marriage papers she stole? It was true, though - all she had done was give him time to stew. Ichiji was not a man who cooled down over time, opting instead to nurse his anger and brood. Aspen could still feel pain in her abdomen from his last punishment, when she’d vanished during dinner. _“How do you think he’ll like your latest little stunt?”_

Aspen turned the knob and pushed the door open. She went to take a step, and found that her feet would not move. _“Go,”_ Aspen urged herself, feeling her heart hammering loudly in her chest. Dread washed over her as she considered the countless possibilities. What if someone saw her sneaking out of the northern wing? Everyone knew there were no staffers there so late at night. What if someone found her with Musette and Sofi, breaking out on the lower floor? Or if someone recognized her at the train station, before they could board? There were too many wildcards Aspen had not considered, and any of them could happen once she left her room. _“Go! Fucking go now!”_

A sudden wave of pain rippled fast through her skull, nearly bringing her to her knees. Aspen groaned, confused and freaked out by the full blown headache out of nowhere. It was worse than the worst migraine she’d ever experienced. _“Not now,”_ she pleaded with herself, feeling her brain pushing hard at the backs of her eyes, at the inside of her skull. The pressure was agony. Another wave hit, and Aspen’s knees hit the floor. She screwed her eyes shut against the now-blinding light in her room, her hands moving to cover her face. _“Please, not now, not -”_

Suddenly, Aspen could feel herself falling, air rushing past her. She landed hard on top of something soft, and that something let out a shriek before being pancaked into the floor. Aspen opened her eyes to find her entire world was spinning, the headache was gone, and the urge to vomit all over herself was all-encompassing. Aspen sat up, disoriented, and looked over at a stunned Sofi, bundled in layers, laying flat on the floor. On either side of her were two large travel bags and a violin case. Aspen had knocked Sofi's hat off, and it was on the ground down the hall from them.

“Well.” Sofi said, finally finding her voice and getting to her feet as Aspen ran several feet away to vomit, her whole body shaking. The dress she wore was trapping all the heat and felt heavy on her skin, making her sweat badly. In the brief moments when she could catch her breath, she could see the walls around them were only glass, a thin layer separating them from silent, snowy woods. She was in the lower floor of the northern wing - and had no idea how she’d gotten there. “That was quite an entrance.”

Vomiting twice more for good measure, Aspen somehow managed to keep her shoes completely clean. Sofi came up behind her, patting her sympathetically, looking around in a nervous way. “I don’t know how the hell you just fell out of the ceiling and I could spend hours talking about it…” Sofi began.

“We’ve gotta go,” Aspen panted, finally feeling the nausea ebb away. She waved her hand, and Sofi's hat came flying into her grasp. She extended it to Sofi, who took it back.

“Exactly, yeah.”

Straightening up, Aspen looked around. All she could see were the woods around them, with the odd rabbit or bird sneaking through the trees. She was most certainly in the lower floor, with Sofi, and she had no idea how she’d gotten there. Aspen was completely bewildered. " _What the fuck?"_ Sofi handed over an extremely heavy bag, which she slung over her shoulder, and her violin case. Aspen looked around for a third bag, and a third person. “Where is Musette?”

“She’ll meet us at the train station, don’t worry about her.” Sofi answered, her voice evasive. Picking up her own bag, she pointed at the end of the hallway, where two double doors waited. Around their handles was a heavy chain lock, the glowing red light on the lock shining bright in the darkness. Aspen could tell it was a fingerprint scan model. 

She knelt down, setting down her bag and violin, and examined it for a moment. She looked up at Sofi and raised an eyebrow. “You couldn’t get out of this one on your own? You’re rusty.” Closing her eyes, she held her hands just above the chain, holding her breath for an instant. There was a momentary blip of another headache, and Aspen opened her eyes. The chain broke into multiple pieces, disintegrating upon contact with the floor. Aspen watched as the red light on the lock slowly dimmed to nothing. Nodding, she straightened back up, grabbing her bag and violin again. “Ready?”

Sofi walked past Aspen, throwing both doors wide open. A strong gust of snow and wind blew right in, and Aspen closed her eyes as she relished the feeling of it on her skin. The snowflakes that landed on her cheeks melted on contact, and the cool water trickled from her face onto the floor. She was almost free - even if only for a bit. “So, since you’re dressed as a staff member,” Sofi asked, carefully pulling herself up onto the low railing of the Juliet balcony. “Is this the only time I’ll officially outrank you?”

“For one night and one night only.” Aspen joined Sofi on the balcony, handing her the violin case to hold as she pulled herself up alongside her. Over the edge, the ground was far down, and mounded with snow that glittered in the moonlight. _“That means ice,”_ Aspen thought, mentally preparing herself to handle them both carefully on the way down. “How exactly is Musette going to get out to meet us at the station?”

“She’ll be fine,” Sofi assured Aspen, handing her back her violin and linking their arms together. She gave her a sly, sideways look. “So if you’re my staffer, I have a _very_ important job for you, once we’re in Neigebelle and you’re well-rested. You see, my lover’s left me quite neglected as of late…”

“Don’t need to ask me twice, your grace.” Aspen couldn’t help but look over her shoulder, the concern for Musette growing. She did not like at all that Musette wasn’t there with them, to take the first leap out together. Musette was safer with them than meeting them at the train station on her own. She hoped Sofi was not lying to her; leaving Musette where Ichiji could easily get to her was a nightmare scenario for Aspen. “Are we ready?”

Sofi pointed her hand at Aspen’s. “Hide that.”

Aspen looked down, and saw her engagement ring glittering in the moonlight just as the snow had. If anything was going to give her away as a fake palace staffer, it would be a ring worth more than several local salaries. Relieved to be able to take it off, Aspen yanked it from her finger, hiding it in the folds of an inner coat pocket. “ _Now_ are we ready?”

“More ready than I was when I first came back to the palace. On the count of three, we jump together. One, two -”

“ - Three.”

They jumped, arms together, sights on the snowy ground below.


	25. NEXUS VII

When Nexus woke with a start, he found himself at his dining room table, in the apartment he shared with Wintergreen. The apartment as a whole was dark, and he could see it was snowing yet again right outside the window. He could hear Wintergreen talking to someone out of sight, at their front door. She sounded tired and confused. “What’s going on?”

Confused, Nexus lifted his head and looked down at the table. The notepad he’d been writing on had a copious amount of a drool on it, and it had blurred all that he’d managed to write down. He had started with the intent of writing down all the responsibilities on his plate, including the ones he’d been neglecting. Unfortunately, it seemed he’d only gotten as far as two items before promptly passing out.

Aspen: well, that one was obvious. She was the responsibility from which most of his others sprang. She had her hands full with Ichiji - and Nexus didn’t at all buy her story of ‘role playing’ as an explanation for what he heard going on in her bedroom. Nexus had deduced it was likely that Ichiji was blackmailing Aspen into it ( _“He is Judge’s son and heir, after all - he was probably taught all his favorite tricks.”_ ). He had just been at a total loss on what he could do to counter it. _“Sofi and Musette have to be involved somehow. Aspen wouldn’t martyr herself for anyone else.”_

Lab work: another obvious one. Not that there was much Nexus could do at the moment, short of observing his nephews. There would be no new dosages to administer to Ichiji until after the new year. Yonji was continuing to improve in leaps and bounds, while Niji remained unchanged. Nexus and Reiju had made a habit of meeting for afternoon tea - it was intended to discuss the boys, but more often than not, it turned into reminiscing of how things had been before they’d even been born. When Sora was still alive.

“Nexus is sleeping,” Wintergreen’s voice had a peculiar edge to it that shook him fully out of his groggy state. There was a mumbled response, but the other voice was low and quiet. Nexus could not figure out who it was. Stumbling, Nexus jumped out of his chair and hurried to her, a feeling of dread already chewing at his stomach. “Just give me a moment and I’ll go -”

“What’s going on?” Nexus barely had time to smooth his rumpled coat before whipping around the corner and almost crashing directly into his wife. She was dressed in a fluffy white robe, her hair pushed out of her eyes with a wide headband. At the bottom of her robe there was a coating of long, silky-white hairs - she had been cuddling with Aspen's cat, Jack. He could see her eyes were wide, and stressed. Immediately, Nexus knew it was nothing good, without even seeing who was at the door yet.

Ichiji was standing in the doorway, almost right inside their apartment. He was dressed in a way that implied he’d gone out of the palace recently - boots, a black scarf, and a closed black and red trench coat. One hand was held down at his side, in a tightly closed fist. In the other hand, he held a small, mint green envelope. His mouth had thinned into a nearly invisible line, and Nexus could see fury bubbling up in his eyes. “Your highness,” Nexus quickly pivoted his attention from his wife to his nephew. It was nothing good indeed. “It is very late -”

In a swift motion, Ichiji swung his arm up and shoved the envelope at Nexus, who took it from him with a confused look. Wintergreen switched on the light in their foyer, and Nexus could see his name written on the front in Aspen’s neat, tidy handwriting. “She’s gone. Again.” Ichiji quietly informed Nexus, his voice hot with anger. “I had to leave for a brief period and when I came back, that letter had been left on her desk.”

 _"_ _Aspen,”_ Nexus thought, stricken. How many disappearing acts could one teenager pull? Nexus carefully tore the envelope open along its seal. It was solidly shut, not gummy - it had been licked and sealed for at least a day. _“This doesn’t seem to have been some spur of the moment thing.”_ He pulled out a single page letter, and unfolded it. “I’m sure she has to be around here somewhere,” he assured Ichiji with confidence he didn’t feel in the slightest. Nexus turned his attention to the letter, scanning it for important information. The longer he read, the more his heart raced, and when his eyes fell on a certain mark at the very bottom, he was certain his eyes were lying to him.

“Read it aloud,” Ichiji commanded, keeping his voice low. He looked to be in the worst mood Nexus had seen from him yet, quietly boiling with anger. It felt dangerous even to be standing near him.

Hesitating, Nexus gripped the sides of the letter in his hands. It wasn’t a long letter at all, but it would assuredly only make Ichiji angrier. Still, it was not his place to refuse that request. He cleared his throat, and took a deep breath. “I, Aspen Freja Frostbane, Princess of all Hoarfrost Kingdom, have departed for Neigebelle, in preparation for Yule celebrations. This is a time-honored tradition practiced by my father, my great-grandfather, and now, me. 

“I have left with my chosen attendants as tradition dictates. My immediate household staff and royal guests are welcome to join me at the Grand Chateau at Neigebelle after the passage of no fewer than five days. It is my hope that all will be able to join me in celebrating this holiday season in the north.

“Sincerely, Her Royal Highness, Princess Aspen F. Frostbane.”

Nexus had watched as every word made Wintergreen’s eyes grow wider and wider. He could scarcely believe it himself - Neigebelle? Aspen had refused holiday trips to the Grand Chateau so many years in a row, both he and the Council had stopped asking by the time she’d turned 12. It had been a safe assumption that Aspen had been permanently dissuaded from visiting by her father’s death during the holiday visit right after she’d turned eight. _“I never thought she would go back.”_

Unimpressed, Ichiji turned and walked away down the hall.

“Wait.” Despite wanting nothing more than to close the door and go to bed, Nexus hurried after him. He slipped the letter into his breast pocket, patting it into place. It was going to be an essential piece of aid for him very soon, and he knew it. “Prince Ichiji, _wait._ Where are you going?”

Ichiji did not slow down in the slightest as Nexus caught up to him, and he gave him a cold glare. “I am going to let my father know what has happened. I already had to wake him for a different incident tonight. One of our staff lured me out of the palace under false pretenses.” They left the apartment block, passing through the hub. It was far colder than usual, due to the still-broken exterior wall in the kitchens. “When I returned, I went to check on Aspen and found that she was missing. I need to give him an update. I wonder if these two incidents are related.”

 _“That would require foresight Aspen does not possess,”_ Nexus thought to himself, now internally preparing himself for the exchange with Judge that was rapidly approaching. _“At least she gave me that letter.”_ It would be essential in taking the wind from Judge’s sails. Nexus followed his nephew into the eastern wing, past the bedrooms and into a dimly-lit sitting room occasionally used by guests. 

The room looked as elegant and ornately decorated as any other in the palace. Gold trim adorned the tops of the walls where they touched the ceiling, and the light from the fire glinting off of them. All fours walls were a deep shade of burgundy, and the furniture was all upholstered in similarly-colored, rich fabric. On one of the larger couches by the fire, Judge was already waiting. When he saw his son, he rose to his feet, but his expression became perplexed when he saw Nexus right behind. “What is going on? And what is _he_ doing here?” He asked Ichiji, ignoring Nexus as though he were an insect. “It is very late. This nonsense is not like you.”

Ichiji held up a hand, silencing his father. “I bothered you because I was similarly bothered, father. About an hour ago, I was told by a staffer that Niji needed my assistance with matters in Germa.”

Nexus, still concealed behind Ichiji, raised an eyebrow at that. It couldn’t have been Aspen’s doing. Judge’s eyes narrowed, and he folded his arms over his chest. “In _Germa?_ There are no matters that would require yours or Niji’s attention so late at night. Not anchored in the harbor as we are, anyway...what matters were they?”

“The staffer informed me that Niji did not tell him.”

“Naturally…”

As odd as Ichiji’s experience in being tricked into leaving the palace was, it had nothing to do with Nexus or Aspen. He listened to Ichiji and Judge grumbling to each other, trying to figure out exactly what he would say when the time came to turn on him. It would be so, so satisfying to tell them both ‘no’ - that was certain. Nexus had not missed the mark at the bottom of Aspen’s letter. _“This time, her wishes are non-negotiable.”_

“I arrived in Germa, and nobody I spoke to had any clue what I was there for, or what I was talking about.” Though he had remained calm so far, Ichiji’s voice was slowly beginning to increase in volume. It seemed that he - like his father - despised being made a fool of. Nexus could see the back of his neck beginning to turn as red as his hair. “Nobody had seen Niji for weeks, not since we arrived here. He certainly had not sent for me.”

Judge made a disapproving sound, and began to slowly shake his head from side to side. On the floor, the fire behind him cast a long, dark shadow over both Nexus and Ichiji. Nexus remained silent, still half-hidden behind Ichiji, mulling over his planned response. _“It’s the truth. They will not like it, but it is the truth. It’s going to be so satisfying to tell them.”_

“I got back here, called you to tell you what had happened,” Ichiji continued, his voice continuing to grow louder and louder the angrier he got. “And then I went to check on Princess Aspen, whom I had tucked into bed before leaving. I expected her to find her as I’d left her -”

“Do _not_ ,” Judge interrupted, his eyes growing stormy, and moving his glare onto Nexus. “Tell me that she is gone again.”

Ichiji nodded.

Despite his incensed glare, a broad smile spread over Judge’s face. An opportunity to tear into Nexus was one he would not pass up. “This is not the first time that girl has disappeared on Ichiji,” Judge informed Nexus, stabbing a finger down at him. Ichiji stepped to the side, leaving Nexus exposed. “At the very least, it is disrespectful.”

“You will refer to her as _Princess Aspen,”_ Nexus replied, his voice icy. Judge had no right whatsoever to treat Aspen as a regular frustration to him, and it boiled Nexus’s blood. “And remember that not only is she the same rank as you in the eyes of the World Government, in this kingdom, she outranks both of you.”

Ignoring him completely, Judge turned his attention back to Ichiji, who had not ignored Nexus and was glaring at him. The reminder that he ranked beneath Aspen was an unwelcome one. “Do you have any idea where she is? Last time you were insistent she was with Niji but that was not the case.”

Ichiji pointed at Nexus. “She left a letter for him. In it, she said she was going somewhere called ‘Neigebelle.’”

“Neigebelle is a famed resort town known all over the North Blue,” Nexus answered before they could ask, his voice flat, feeling like he was reading a brochure from Neigebelle’s own tourism industry. “It is the northernmost city in Hoarfrost Kingdom, about an eight hour train ride from the capital - where we are now.”

“ _Eight hours?”_ Ichiji was once again struggling to keep his voice even, losing the composure he’d scarcely regained. His eyes narrowed, and his mouth twitched incessantly. “An eight hour train ride?”

Judge looked nearly apoplectic at Nexus’s words, and his own hands curled into fists at the perceived insult. With the fire glowing at his back, he almost appeared as a demonic entity - but Nexus was not cowed in the slightest. “Call the train stations along the way,” he ordered Nexus, his voice shaking with fury. “Have her intercepted and brought back here immediately.”

“No.”

Ichiji, who had turned away when his father handed down the order, turned back again. He looked more surprised than angry for a moment, and then Nexus heard him beginning to grind his teeth as Niji often did. “No?”

“No.” Nexus repeated. He would have smiled at his nephew’s absolute shock at hearing a refusal, were the situation not quite so serious. If either Judge or Ichiji decided to resort to violence, Nexus would not stand a chance. He hoped their concern for their reputations would drive them to hold back. He turned away from them both, taking a seat at a high-back chair that faced the fire. The fabric was warm against his body. “I cannot, and I will not.”

Face rapidly purpling beneath his helmet, Judge looked ready to swing at Nexus. “We will see what your kingdom’s council has to say about this,” he finally said, struggling to speak without shouting.

Nexus let a smile peek onto his face at that. He’d love the chance to tell those decrepit fools the exact same thing he’d just told Judge and Ichiji. “Oh, please do.” Nexus took the letter from his pocket, setting it on his lap. He would need it soon. “Summon them here.”

Judge did just that, taking a transponder from his pocket and huffing the entire time. In no time at all, over half of the old bastards had crammed into the sitting room - among them Torvig, the head of the Council. Heavy coat thrown over his flannel pajamas and wearing snow boots that were crusted in ice, Torvig looked just as angry as Judge and Ichiji. “Nexus,” Torvig spoke through clenched, yellowing teeth. “What is the meaning of this?”

The rest of the Council made sounds of agreement, none of them sounding pleased at having been dragged to the palace in the dead of night. Very few of them were dressed; a good number of them had clothed themselves exactly as Torvig had done. Judge and Ichiji stood behind all of them, smirking at Nexus, expecting his comeuppance to be handed down at any moment. Nexus smirked right back, the letter under his hand. “Princess Aspen,” he politely informed the Council. “Has left to spend the Yule holidays in Neigebelle. She left behind a letter saying that she has taken her chosen attendants. The household staff and her _royal guests_...” he paused to look pointedly at Ichiji and Judge. “...may follow in five days.”

There was silence from the Council. Nexus saw Judge’s smirk flicker.

“Neigebelle?” A council member behind Torvig murmured, unable to conceal his surprise. Nexus could not see who it was. “Her royal highness has refused to return there for years…”

“The celebration of the Yule holiday in Neigebelle is an age-old Frostbane family tradition,” another council member chimed in, sounding equal parts surprised and pleased. “Leaving early with her attendants is her right…”

Torvig stood, thunderstruck and silent, while others debated around him. Nexus was savoring every second. Torvig himself had led the crusade for _years_ for Aspen to return to Neigebelle for the holidays - it was an _expected_ tradition of the royal family, and it made for good optics. _“King Walrin had been sick for years. His passing in Neigebelle should not sully the entire tradition for Aspen,”_ Torvig had once argued to Nexus. Now, Aspen’s sudden decision to honor the tradition, after years of refusing, had seemingly caused Torvig to short-circuit. Nexus stretched out in his chair, giving Torvig a satisfied smirk.

Judge realized quickly that the discussion was not at all going the way he had anticipated, and switched his approach. “Ichiji is her future husband and the future king. Her purposely leaving him behind sets a bad precedent. I would like to take this moment to remind _all_ of you that this is not the first time Princess Aspen has pulled such a disappearing act.”

The Council responded with more murmuring among themselves.

“King Wulfric left behind Lady Ingrid for the five day period prior to their marriage…”

“I seem to recall something similar with Prince Sigurd and Princess Hasina of Alabasta…”

“That was quite some time ago...traditions can evolve…”

Torvig continued to stand in place, staring at Nexus, who was positively giddy on the inside. _“He doesn’t know what to say!”_ His discomfort was obvious - Judge and Ichiji were glaring so hard at the back of Torvig’s head, even Nexus could feel it.

Finally, Torvig cleared his throat loudly, and all remaining discussion ceased. The room was silent, aside from the popping and crackling of the fire. He turned around to face Judge and Ichiji, both of whom were very visibly unhappy. The back of his neck was beet red, and Nexus got a glimpse as Torvig bowed low. There were several loud pops in his back. “Your royal highnesses,” he began, speaking low and slow. “Our most honored guests...Princess Aspen’s behavior...while decidedly not ideal...is her right as a princess of Hoarfrost.”

Nexus was surprised at that. _“He doesn’t have it in her to condemn her decision.”_

Ichiji’s face contorted in pure rage, and Nexus was sure he could hear his teeth grinding.

“However,” Torvig quickly continued, likely afraid of the prince punching a hole right through his creaky body. “ _However._ Given the...unique circumstances in this situation…”

 _“The unique circumstances being your all-encompassing need to bend over for Germa,”_ Nexus thought, pressing his lips into a line. All the same, Torvig’s words would not matter.

“It may indeed make sense to send Prince Ichiji to Neigebelle,” Torvig pressed on, and Judge and Ichiji’s anger began to abate. “As early as dawn -”

“No.” Nexus cut him off. “No. We can’t do that.”

The silence was absolutely deafening. Even the fire didn’t dare crackle.

“And _why_ ,” Ichiji spoke softly, sounding more terrifyingly angry than if he had yelled. “Is that?”

Nexus moved in for the kill. In a single motion, he held up Aspen’s letter from his lap, unfolding it and holding it for everyone to see. He watched as every single council member’s eyes went wide as their jaws slacked open when they saw the bottom of the letter. Torvig turned around as well, and looked on the verge of a heart attack at the sight. “Princess Aspen said nobody can join her for a minimum of five days.”

“So _what?”_ Ichiji’s voice was a hiss.

“Councilman Torvig.” Nexus took a finger and tapped the bottom section of the letter, right where all the council members were staring. “Would you please explain to Prince Ichiji what the mark at the bottom of this letter is, and what it means?”

Torvig looked absolutely defeated, staring at the mark. It was an ornate AF, with a decorated winter motif. On one side, there was a large white bear, its claws out and its head thrown back in a roar. On the other side was a bramble-antlered moose, standing on its hind legs. The initials shone in the firelight, having been embossed in silver foil. Weakly, Torvig looked at Judge and Ichiji. “That would be the Princess Aspen’s crest.”

“Which means?” Nexus urged him on.

“Her directives in the letter are _orders_. Not requests.” Torvig’s shoulders slumped in defeat. There was no way around it - he knew it, Nexus knew it, and Aspen had certainly known it. Aspen had never used _this_ particular flex before. He turned fully back around to Ichiji, who looked fit to explode. “We are compelled to obey and enforce her royal highness’s command. We will have to wait five days. I am sorry we cannot do more.”

The Council cleared out in haste after making their apologies, not a single one of them daring to make eye contact with anyone. Even as Judge and Ichiji seethed by the fire, Nexus could not help but be impressed with Aspen’s foresight. _“She really left them with no recourse,”_ he thought, folding the letter and putting it back into his breast pocket. _“She has never issued an actual command like this in her life. I don’t think she’s ever planned this well...Ichiji will be very, very unhappy when the rest of us arrive in Neigebelle, though...”_

The three of them remained in silence for a moment, with Nexus sitting comfortably in his chair. Ichiji had finally taken a seat at a table in the corner, hidden from the glow of the fire. Judge had begun pacing, his footsteps shaking the floor and breaking the relative silence. After a few rounds of pacing, he threw a dirty look at Nexus. “Who were the ones so important to her that they received preferential treatment over her own future husband?”

“The young Duchess Sofi Sanofi and Musette Torte, a young palace staffer.” Nexus did not provide further elaboration.

Ichiji began loudly drumming his fingers on the tabletop, looking away from both his father and Nexus, who could see that it was becoming harder for him to remain composed. Ichiji had always been different from his brothers - remaining calm and quiet while Niji and Yonji would let their rage destroy everything around them - but it looked like that was beginning to unravel. 

“Musette Torte? Isn’t she working for Yonji?” Judge’s facial expression made it clear that, having failed to reunite Ichiji with Aspen, he was now interested in making Nexus’s life as miserable as he could. “I doubt Yonji was made aware that his personal staffer was leaving for any period of time.”

“You could certainly ask him if you like,” Nexus answered, feeling a headache coming on. He was getting very, very tired, and Yonji would be much louder and frustrating to deal with. _“Can’t win them all.”_ Nexus sighed. “I can have a staff member go and -”

“No need.” Judge pulled his transponder out. “I can contact him much faster this way. We don’t have an eternity to wait for him to get dressed and out of bed.” He paused, eyeing Nexus nastily. “I don’t imagine he’ll be happy. Do you?”

Ichiji snickered.

The transponder rang twice before there was an answer. “Father?”

Immediately, Nexus could tell something was strange. Yonji in no way sounded like he had been sleeping, and there was a peculiar noise in the background. Yonji’s bedroom was only just down the hall - and Nexus could hear no such sound. 

Judge seemed to realize something was amiss as well. “Were you awake?”

“Uh, yeah,” Yonji sounded distracted. “I have been having trouble sleeping.”

“Ah. Well, I just wanted to let you know…” Judge glanced over at Nexus again, who had stopped smiling and was gripping the arms of his chair. “The Princess Aspen has apparently taken off, and she’s taken that little blonde thing you’re so fond of -”

Nexus opened his mouth to correct Judge, and Yonji promptly beat him to it. “Her name,” Yonji interrupted, sounding pissed. “Is _Musette.”_

“Yonji,” Ichiji cut in. “Where are you?”

Nexus glanced warily over at Ichiji, who was leaning in closer to his father, tilting his head to hear better. _“So he’s noticed, too.”_ The strange noises seemed to be rhythmic and mechanical in nature - and no such sound ever occurred in the palace. Certainly not in the dead of night.

 _“Wait.”_ A thought hit Nexus with the force of a ton of bricks. _“Don’t tell me…”_

“Wha?” Yonji sounded hesitant. “I’m...in bed. You know…”

“Yonji?” Nexus heard what was unmistakably Musette’s gentle, high voice. “What are you doing?”

The call cut off immediately afterwards.

 _“They took Yonji with them?”_ Nexus could scarcely believe it, but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. Yonji and Musette had become virtually inseparable, and trying to take her without him might have triggered him to alert his brother and father. Additionally, his inclusion meant Judge could not accurately claim that his family had been wholly snubbed from the tradition. Yonji was also, of course, ridiculously strong like his other brothers - Nexus could not name anyone who’d be a better bodyguard. _“Clever, clever Aspen.”_

Ichiji, seemingly no longer able to tolerate how his night had gone, stood up abruptly and left the room. Neither Nexus nor Judge attempted to stop him. He watched Ichiji’s back as he turned in the direction of his family’s bedrooms, including his own. It didn’t seem he was interested in returning to Aspen’s empty bedroom.

“This is not over,” Judge promised.

“It is for five days,” Nexus answered wearily, getting to his feet. He turned to leave, patting his breast pocket for his cigarettes and feeling only Aspen’s letter. His night had dragged on for longer than he’d wanted it to; a headache was approaching fast. Judge was right behind him as he moved for the door, muttering angrily under his breath.

The two of them had taken not even two steps when Ichiji reappeared in the doorway. His teeth were fully bared, and both hands were clenched in tight fists that seemed to pulsate with energy that glowed bright red. He had drawn his shoulders up to his ears, and his body was completely rigid. All composure was gone.

“Ichiji.” Judge, even more concerningly, looked alarmed at the sight of his son. “What -”

“Niji,” he growled, his fury driving both his father and Nexus to take several steps away from him. “Is _gone._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- 'council' is capitalized depending on its usage - I'm being really personally picky about it


	26. SOFI VI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- no smut...this time

“I bought a bunch of snacks at the food car. I was the only one in there aside from the vendor. I didn’t think they’d be open so late. Or is it early at this point?”

“Did we get everything put away?”

“Yeah, I think so...your violin is on top of a bunch of other bags so be careful when you open the storage bins.”

“Hello? Chips, snack cakes, anything?”

“No thanks, Sofi.”

“I’m good, thank you.”

“You’re telling me neither of you want anything?”

“ _I_ want,” Aspen grumbled, legs folded beneath her as she sat sideways in their train car, well on their way to Neigebelle. They were about four hours into their trip, and Sofi had been waiting for Aspen to speak up. “To address the elephant in the room.”

“The gorilla, you mean,” Sofi corrected her, trying to take a joking tone. Aspen had slept for the first few hours and Sofi wished she could have stayed sleeping for a bit longer. She was about to be a massive pain in the ass. “And I _told_ you, we didn’t have a choice.”

Aspen glared at Sofi, who was sitting next to her, to Musette, seated across from them both with Yonji. Musette had been nervously playing with her hair since Aspen had woken up, likely anticipating the same blowup as Sofi. Yonji looked tired but otherwise unconcerned with anything around him that wasn’t Musette, whom he had his arm around. “Which part of 'NO VINSMOKES' was hard for you two to understand?”

Sofi tried to explain, already knowing there was no point. If Aspen wanted to be mad, she was going to be mad. “That’s not fair. I did what I could. You wanted Musette and she’s a package deal with the green-haired dumbass now.” She imitated Aspen’s position, leaning her back against the wall, beside the door to their car. The feeling of her curls flattening was not one she liked, but the bench seats were not the most comfortable.

Yonji, who had been pretending not to hear them up to that point, gave Sofi a dirty look. “I’m _right here.”_

“And I _don’t care_.” Sofi turned her attention back to Aspen, leaving Yonji scowling. Clearly, the few hours of sleep Aspen had gotten had done nothing but give her just enough energy to be irritating and unreasonable. “Seriously, though - if we hadn’t brought him, he would’ve ratted your ass out to Ichiji.”

The wrong thing to say? Maybe. But Sofi was damned if _she_ was going to be the primary person catching flak for the change of plans.

Face rapidly reddening, Aspen rounded on Yonji, who was beginning to look as though he realized he had screwed up somewhere in his ingenious plan to keep Musette close. Musette, at his side, was blushing darker than Sofi had ever seen. Yonji gave Aspen a defiant look, sticking his chin out. “Nobody asked me if she could go,” he pointed out. “She works for -”

“For _me_ ,” Aspen cut him off, gritting her teeth. Even running on only a few hours of sleep and dressed in a tidy little staffer’s dress, Aspen’s anger was something to behold. “Who the fuck are _you_ that you tried to interfere with _my_ plans?”

Musette’s face was positively glowing as she stared straight down at her lap.

“I just wanted -”

“None of this is about what you fucking want!” Aspen snapped, cutting Yonji off again. Sofi was grateful for the general emptiness of the train - the attendant had told them there was only one other passenger, and they were much further up. Aspen was making no attempt to keep her voice down. “Can you not fucking fathom something happening that doesn’t concern your stupid ass?” With her last shout, Sofi noticed the wide window behind her beginning to vibrate in its frame.

Clearly, Sofi’s little quip about Yonji nearly selling them out to Ichiji had touched a nerve with Aspen. All she’d wanted was to redirect Aspen’s anger off of her, not put them on a collision course with Aspen’s unchecked telekinesis. “There’s nothing we can do about it right here and right now.” She leaned across the bench, and set a hand on Aspen’s bare knee. Both Sofi _and_ Musette had given Yonji a verbal dressing-down for his threats, prior to them leaving. Surprisingly, Musette had been the one voicing her displeasure the loudest - chastising his shady blackmail attempts and actually daring to get in his face over it when he tried to argue back. Yonji had not paid Sofi much mind, aside from asking “Who are you again?” and “Why were you in the closet?”

Thoroughly mortified by everything happening around her, Musette was completely silent. Sofi noticed, though, that both she and Yonji were getting progressively closer and more snuggly the longer the train ride took. She had been leaning against him almost the entire ride so far, save for the brief moment he’d stepped out. Even with how tense things had been when they’d all met up at the station, they’d stayed cute and in close contact. It was like Yonji couldn’t keep his hands off her, and Sofi approved.

Aspen, catching a glimpse of Musette’s face, decided to back off. Sofi knew Aspen didn’t have it in her to really upset Musette, no matter how mad she was. Sighing angrily, she tilted her head back against the window. Outside, it had only just begun to brighten, with vivid sunrise colors reflecting across the icy landscape. By Sofi’s measure, they’d crossed the halfway mark, and would be passing Altest and Drammen soon.

There was a knock at the door. Aspen didn’t answer, and Yonji and Musette both looked at Sofi. “Come in,” Sofi answered hastily, pulling herself back into a proper sitting position and adjusting her skirt, which had begun to ride up.

“Pardon my intrusion.” The attendant they had met earlier poked her head in, her brown hair styled atop her head like a fountain. She looked at the group, and got a confused look on her face. The same thing had happened earlier. “My…ladies…your royal highnesses?”

It seemed Yonji’s presence had thrown her off, as had Aspen being dressed like household help. _“No doubt she expected a cape, a crown, the works,”_ Sofi thought, smiling. The very few people they had encountered on their journey who had recognized Aspen had all been equally confused. Aspen, realizing she was being stared at, gave a small wave from her slumped-over position by the window.

“Hi there.”

Looking both confused and anxious at being in the presence of her princess, a foreign royal, a duchess, and a fourth person she didn’t recognize, the attendant bowed nervously, creasing the exactly middle of the smooth blue uniform dress she wore. “A good morning to you all. I just wanted to let you know that we will be making a very brief stop at the Altest and Drammen station.”

“Why?” Sofi immediately asked, her voice sharp and her back going rigid. It was common knowledge that Altest and Drammen was a hotspot for those cultists. Sofi had heard that all rail service to the city had been cut off, and it had been a relief - she didn’t want Aspen in the area at all, for any amount of time. “Has service to the area not been discontinued after all?”

“Leisure travel has, your grace.” The attendant stammered, looking very nervous at being addressed directly by a duchess - even a young duchess. She looked very young, and Sofi was willing to wager they were all roughly the same age. “We are stopping to drop off a small delivery of supplies for the royal army. You comprise five of our only passengers, and the conductor felt it best that I let everyone aboard know.”

“Is it safe for us to be in the area?” Sofi pressed, her worry continuing to grow. “I had heard there was fighting taking place.”

Now it was Aspen’s turn to lean over and calm Sofi down, gently rubbing her thigh. “We’ll be fine. It probably won’t even take that long.” Though her voice was reassuring, her eyes looked worried. Sofi, now that she thought about it, wasn’t sure how much Aspen even knew about what was taking place in her own kingdom. _“I’m sure the Council has wanted her concern and singular focus to be Ichiji.”_

The attendant shook her hair, shaking her hair from side to side. “No, your highness, I can’t imagine it taking very long at all.”

“Very good, thank you for letting us know. Was that all?”

“Ah, one more thing…” She opened the door to their car a bit more, and Sofi could see two wrapped presents in her arms. One was a flat rectangle, the other a cellophane bag. The wrapping around both was creamy white, and they each had a silvery-blue ribbon. “Our one other passenger requested I bring these to the princess. 

“Presents!” Sofi accepted the gifts from the attendant, passing them to Aspen, who looked confused. They temporarily drove thoughts of Altest and Drammen from her mind. “That’s so nice of them, whoever they are. We should remember to stop and thank them when we get to Neigebelle.”

Giving one last bow, the attendant stepped back out, sliding the door shut. Musette caught Sofi’s eye, yawning as she glanced out the window and then leaned back against Yonji, who held her protectively. It was sweet to watch, and Sofi hoped Musette would fall asleep soon enough. She didn’t know what they would see as they drew closer to Altest and Drammen, but she knew it would be nothing like the quiet, peaceful winter wonderland they saw rushing past now. She did not want Musette to worry.

After a few moments of sitting in silence - everyone seeming to watch Musette and waiting for her to nod off before speaking - Yonji spoke up, looking at the presents on her lap. “Do people do that a lot?”

“What, just randomly give me things?” She handed the larger present to Sofi, who held it out for her as she tugged at the ribbon, trying to slip it off without having to undo the knot. “Not really...do people do it for you?”

Yonji let out a dark chuckle, settling back against his seat as Musette, fully asleep, cuddled against his chest. “Well...it’s always 50/50 whether people are happy to see me and my family in the first place...I can’t say I’ve had it happen to me. Reiju and Ichiji maybe.”

“Oh.” His answer seemed to surprise Aspen, who blinked, the now-loose ribbon wrapped around her hand. Sofi understood her surprise - the way Yonji’s father went on sometimes, it certainly had been made to seem as though people threw gifts and offerings at the Vinsmoke family wherever they went. Shrugging, Aspen tore the wrapping off the first gift - a book of sheet music, from what Sofi could see. “Oh, nice! Holiday music! I can probably play it with my violin.”

“Thank god I grabbed it.” Sofi was excited. Holiday music was bound to be more cheerful than Aspen’s usual fare.

Yonji looked confused. “Does everyone know you play violin or something?”

Looking through the window, Sofi could tell that the train was getting closer and closer to Altest and Drammen with every second. The woods and snowy tundra that they had seen for hours was being replaced with the odd house, and the cabin began to reek with a faint acrid, suffocating smell. All the buildings Sofi could see dotting the landscape were set far back from the tracks, but even still, she could see that all were burnt-out husks, blackened with soot and ash amid the untouched snow. Sofi stole a brief glance at Aspen out of the corner of her eye, and could see that Aspen had turned around and pressed her face to the glass.

Moments later, the train crossed into Altest and Drammen proper, and the odor in the train car doubled. Sofi could see nothing but destruction and decay outside - houses, apartment buildings, shops, schools - all rotting. All crumbling brick and broken glass. Snow had accumulated on the pitted roads and cracked sidewalks the way it never did in Snøvanger, filthy with gritty mud and ash. Garbage littered every street and alley, blown in large drifts against walls by the wind. Some of the trash was torn clothes, ruined books, baby carriages. There was not a single sign of human life. Sofi’s eyes watered from the fumes in the air, and she had stopped breathing as she watched it all fly by. Reading about it was one thing. Seeing it was something different.

Most ominous to Sofi were the signs she was seeing that the area had sunk into disrepair long before any fighting had taken place. The facades of many shops (or what had been shops) were soiled and faded, metal roofs were rusted and full of holes. Every few buildings, she saw one that had been fenced off from the rest, boards over the windows and even more trash on its property. Altest and Drammen had always been referred to as the “black eye” of Hoarfrost Kingdom - a filthy backwater everyone in Snøvanger, St. Santigaard, and Åker turned their noses up at. Sofi had never really bothered looking into why that was. 

Reflected in the glass, her face visible over the ruins of the city, Sofi could see Aspen taking in everything. The horror was evident, and her eyes were wide and unblinking. She was mouthing something to herself with every empty, broken street they passed. It was clear she had been told nothing of importance - and hadn’t bothered to find any way to inform herself either. Sofi felt for her - but she felt worse for the people who had once called this place home. _“Where is everybody?”_

Yonji - of course - summed it up easily enough. “That’s some spooky-looking shit.” Careful not to wake Musette, he reached over and slammed the black shade down over the window, hiding the heart of the city from view. Startled, Aspen pulled back, blinking rapidly and still not looking as though she could fully process what she’d seen. 

“I -” She opened her mouth, likely to protest.

“You didn’t open your second present yet,” Yonji pointed to the cellophane bag that still sat on her lap, neatly wrapped. Sofi knew he didn’t really care, but was grateful for his distracting her all the same. There was a time and place for a discussion of the state of the city - and far from the capital, without Nexus or the Council, was not that time.

“Yeah, what is it?” Sofi chimed in, trying to feign as though everything was normal and she didn’t feel rattled herself. She could feel the train rapidly slowing to a stop, and she felt the hair on the back of her neck prickling. The sooner they were out of Altest and Drammen, the sooner she’d be able to relax.

“Oh...uh…” Aspen untied the ribbon and opened the mouth of the bag, sticking a hand in. She pulled up a smooth, perfectly round piece of milk chocolate. Sofi could see ripples of white chocolate through its body, making a marbled effect. “Chocolate! That’s nice.” She was smiling, but she still looked deeply disturbed by what she had seen. “Does anyone want one?”

“No, thanks, they’re yours,” Sofi insisted. The train had been stopped for only minutes, and already she was itching for it to move again. She could hear a handful of people moving on the platform, but the station was unsettlingly silent aside. Even for a city as modestly sized as Altest and Drammen, the station should have been bustling. It was unnerving, and she felt restless being trapped in the middle of it. 

Aspen offered a piece to Yonji, who also refused. “Nah. It’s yours.” He turned his gaze to the ceiling of the car, humming tunelessly, rubbing a hand gently on Musette’s back as she slept. A few more minutes later, the train slowly lurched forward, and they were on their way again.

The last few hours of the journey passed in relative silence, with Aspen falling asleep shortly after turning to lay her head in Sofi’s lap. Musette remained deeply asleep as well, snoring softly with her face turned against Yonji’s chest. After what felt like an eternity, Sofi could feel the train beginning to scale an incline, pressing her sideways into the back of her seat. Musette started to fall forward before Yonji secured her against him with both hands, glancing around curiously.

“Do you like outdoor winter recreation stuff?” Sofi asked casually, brushing her fingers through Aspen’s long black hair. It was silky to the touch - she must’ve bothered to do something with it before leaving. 

“Are you asking me?” Yonji seemed surprised that Sofi was addressing him directly.

“You’re the only person awake other than me, aren’t you?” Sofi raised an eyebrow at him. So far, Yonji seemed far less annoying than either of his brothers - she was even mentally referring to him by name instead of ‘the green gorilla.’ “Yes or no? Skiing, sledding, anything like that? Any of that sound interesting?”

Yonji’s brow furrowed in confusion slightly, and he turned and glanced out the window, forgetting that he had pulled the cover over it. His hair looked differently than usual, loosely hanging down and brushing against his shoulders. Much better than how it usually looked. Sofi wondered if Musette had said something. “I...don’t know? I’ve never done any of it.”

“Oh?” None of it? What the hell was the point of being a prince and not having taken advantage of luxurious vacations?

He looked down at Musette, sleeping comfortably and clinging to him. Her long, golden hair was swept over her shoulders, and Sofi watched him stroke his hand against it. There was a peculiar look in his eyes she couldn’t quite describe. “Does she?”

“No clue. Hopefully. She’s never been here.” The train was leveling out from its steep ascent, and it was starting to slow again. Clearing her throat quietly, she side-eyed Yonji as he continued stroking Musette’s hair. “Also, it should go without saying by now, but if you do _anything_ to hurt her, we’ll find a way to fuck you up for it.” She indicated Aspen, who was out cold.

Looking offended at the very suggestion, Yonji snorted. “Not that you’d get a reason to...but I’d like to see you both _try_.”

“You’d be _easy_ for Aspen,” Sofi bragged. How did he _not_ know? Musette had to have told him about Aspen’s telekinesis. “Don’t you know about her _talents?_ There’s no way you haven’t seen it by now.”

Yonji gave Sofi a highly skeptical look. “I’m at least a foot taller than her, and twice her weight in muscle alone.” He tilted his head sideways as he evaluated Aspen. “Three times her size sounds closer actually…”

“Size doesn’t matter when you’re psychic.” Sofi answered with a mysterious voice, smug over a power that wasn’t her own. She tapped a finger to her head as the train slowed more and more - they’d be stepping off in no time. “Aspen can fuck someone up without touching them.”

“Hmph.” Yonji didn’t look as though he believed a word of it. “We’ll see.”

At long last, the train finally came to a complete stop. With no hesitation or easing into it, Sofi seized Aspen by her shoulders, shaking her hard against the seat. “Hey! We’re here! Get up! Get up!”

“Five more minutes,” Aspen whined, pushing her face into Sofi’s thigh and covering her face with her skirt. Sofi shook her again, harder, as Yonji gently woke Musette up in a far calmer manner.

They all stumbled out of their train car, yawning and stretching in the corridor. Sofi hadn’t realized her legs had begun going numb, and she shook her feet with each step to try and clear the awful pins and needles feeling. Right at the wide open doors, where Sofi could feel the sharp chill from outside, the same attendant from earlier was waiting. “Thank you all again for being so understanding earlier,” she bowed, her voice apologetic. A nervous look on her face, she turned to Aspen, who was blinking blearily at her surroundings. “Your royal highness. Should I arrange for the delivery of all luggage belonging to _everyone_ destined for the Great Chateau?”

Ah. Yonji was probably throwing her off. Sofi glanced over to see if he was paying attention, but his attention was solidly on Musette, having bent over against her to murmur something in her ear. So _cute_.

“Yeah. Deliver all the bags for _everyone_ headed that way.” Aspen paused, patting at the pockets of her grey staff coat, looking confused. She began pulling her pockets inside out, a confused look on her face. “Just...one moment…”

“Here.” Sofi slipped Aspen’s money clip out of a pocket and tossed it to her. Looking relieved to have not lost her money, Aspen handed a thick wad of bills to the attendant, who bowed again and gestured to the doors. Buttoning her coat and pulling up its hood, Aspen stepped off the train and onto the platform. Sofi followed behind like an eager puppy, walking almost backwards to keep an eye on Musette and Yonji. She couldn’t wait to see the looks on their faces.

“What do you think??” Sofi practically exploded with excitement the minute they joined her and Aspen on the platform, looking around in awe. For a brief moment, Yonji glanced further down the train platform, and she saw his eyes go wide. “What? What is it?”

“I…” He paused, blinking, and shook his head. “Nothing. Thought I saw someone.”

“Hmm.”

Neigebelle was cozily nestled in a valley with steep mountains on all sides, protecting the resort town from strong winds and the worst winter weather the island could offer. The train station where they were standing was at the very edge of that valley, with a steep descent back down the mountains at their backs. On every side, the snowy peaks stabbed into soft grey clouds, and Sofi could make out vacationers all over, making the most of the slopes. 

Aspen headed off into the heart of the town, down a wide, heated cobblestone road that served as the primary thoroughfare. Sofi and the others followed close behind, with Sofi herself getting lost looking at the town she hadn’t visited in years. Not a single building along the main road was more than three floors tall, each structure wooden with gabled roofs and wide eaves. Decorative, cheerful carvings adorned the faces of the buildings, and through the wide, bright windows, Sofi could see into the shops and restaurants she and Aspen had loved when they were little. String lights with round, sunny bulbs extended back and forth, from roof to roof, criss-crossing over the street. Iron street lamps were spaced in an orderly fashion all down the road, wrapped in gold and silver tinsel for the Yule holiday. 

At the far end of the small town, the road made a dramatic curve up towards the mountains, where a massive building sat in its own clearing overlooking all of Neigebelle. Sofi turned away from Musette and Yonji when it came into sight and watched Aspen, seeing her tense her whole body, her arms wrapped around herself. 

“So, uh,” Sofi turned back to Musette and Yonji, who looked stunned at the sight of all Neigebelle. “What do you guys think?” The air was thick with the smells of so many different good foods, from both the restaurants and food stalls set up all around. It was making her mouth water. “What do you guys think? Let’s go settle in up at the big house first, and then we can go exploring or whatever. Since you guys have never been here before.”

As they walked through the town, Sofi listened to Musette and Yonji whispering to each other and pointing out different things, while Aspen was completely silent. Tourists were clumped in large groups on every side of the street, barely noticing the group that contained two separate royals in their number. Every few minutes, they would pass a Neigebelle native, who would give Sofi a warm smile and a bow of recognition. They would then promptly do a double-take at the site of their princess, dressed like a chambermaid, their jaws sagging open in disbelief. “ _The real locals aren’t fooled,”_ Sofi observed, as Aspen received many deep, reverent bows from people who looked as though they couldn’t believe their eyes. Aspen gave a polite nod to all who bowed, but said nothing to anyone.

They passed through the center of the town in no time at all, and then it seemed the Grand Chateau was growing larger and larger ahead of them as they got closer. Musette and Yonji were chattering louder and louder, sounding like eager little kids. Sofi was basking in their excitement - she was honestly kind of glad they’d brought him along. It would be nice for Musette to have someone else experience everything for the first time with her. _“And maybe now that we’ve got the whole house to each other, they’ll finally fu -”_

“Hey.” At long last, Aspen spoke again. “I don’t remember that being here last time.”

Sofi could see what Aspen was referring to - and she was right. Set in the courtyard of the Grand Chateau, where a forever-frozen fountain had once been, was a massive, bronze statue. Shaped like a giant Hoarfrostian bear, it stood on its hind legs, front claws out and its head turned to the sky. Immediately, Sofi recognized it for what it was, and she once again wheeled back around to Musette and Yonji. “You two go ahead in and go pick out your rooms,” she smiled as widely and reassuringly as she could. “Aspen and I will be in soon.”

“Oh.” Musette looked surprised. “Are you sure?”

“If she wasn’t sure, she wouldn’t have said so.” Yonji put his hand at Musette’s back, and gave her a light push that almost shoved her face-first into the snow. “Come on.”

“If...if you’re sure…” Musette stumbled, trying to regain her balance. She made her way to the large front doors with Yonji, who glanced briefly from Sofi to Aspen, who was standing directly in front of the statue, staring up at it. Sofi watched them as they opened the doors and headed in together, pulling the doors shut behind them. Once they were gone, she quietly came up behind Aspen.

“Everything okay?”

“He would’ve loved this.” From over Aspen’s shoulder, Sofi could see a plate attached to the front of the plinth: _In memory of King Walrin Frostbane, the Great Bear of the North Blue. May he slumber peacefully beneath the snow_. “I wasn’t expecting this.”

“I know.”

“Did they go inside?”

“They did."

“Good.”

When Aspen dropped to her knees in the snow moments later, crying, Sofi was there to catch her.


	27. MUSETTE VII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- NSFW warning

The Grand Chateau was like something out of a fairy tale. Musette had stopped being impressed by the palace a long time ago, but the chateau felt magical from the moment she stepped inside. It was far smaller, though still a large abode, and it had a cozier, welcoming feeling. All the windows were wide and clear, like the ones she’d seen in the shops they’d passed, and there were sections of crisp white wall with framed photos from top to bottom, transitioning from black and white to full color. There were shelves with old knickknacks lined up neatly, and some of them looked like children’s art projects. “This place is incredible,” she breathed, passing through the front foyer towards a large set of stairs. Above them was a skylight, and held onto the banister as she climbed the stairs, waiting for Yonji at the landing where the stairs forked left and right. “Which way do you think would be best?”

“Whichever. I don’t care.” Yonji, right behind her, had a much more mild expression on his face. He has been just as enthused as her when they cut through the town, but it seemed he was only satisfied with the chateau itself. “It’s on the small side. But I’m not hitting my head on anything so it’s okay.” Musette started up to the right, reaching the next floor and seeing closed doors down the hall - likely some of the bedrooms. She could hear Yonji fumbling with his coat pockets, and she heard the now-familiar rustling of paper. “I’m glad it makes you happy.”

Ah, he’d brought his cheat sheets from Reiju. It made Musette blush just knowing it. She still was undecided how she _really_ felt about the whole thing - it was sweet that he wanted to make an effort, but Musette didn’t want him constantly having to go against what came naturally to him. She said nothing to let on that she’d heard him checking his notes, starting down the hallway and trying to decide which room would suit her best. Midway down, she picked a room that would seem to face the front of the chateau, out towards the town. “Let’s see what we’ve got here.”

Inside, the bedroom walls were all wood, and the wall across from the door was a giant window where Musette could see the town and all its pretty lights. A massive fireplace, with a steel rack of wood a few feet away, sat across from a large, welcoming bed. Stacked with fluffy pillows at the head and a heavy fur throw at the feet, the bed was slightly larger than the one Musette had been sleeping in during her time on Yonji’s staff. There were two closed doors on either side of the fireplace - Musette assumed they were the bathroom and the closet. “Oh my god.” She stepped into the room, gazing up at the ceiling of exposed wooden beams, touching the carved bed frame, and marveling at how soft the blankets were. She undid her coat and hung it on a wrought iron hook by the bed. Yonji made no move to remove his own coat, and Musette gestured to him. “Come here, I’ll take your coat.”

When he still didn’t move, Musette sighed and walked to him, undoing his coat for him. He gave her an offended look, as though he hadn’t taken her coat off for her multiple times, and tried to swat her hands away. “I’m not an invalid. I can take off my own coat.”

Musette ignored his touchy reaction, standing on her tiptoes to pull his coat off his broad shoulders. She hung it up on a hook beside hers, and walked back over to the bed. The train ride had been long, and she’d slept an okay amount...but nothing would beat sleeping in an actual bed. “I think I’m going to take this bedroom. I’ll let Aspen and Sofi know when they come in.”

From his spot leaning against the wall, Yonji coughed. “Well, I mean...do you and I really _need_ separate bedrooms?”

“Hm?”

"It would be better to have us in one room together. Especially after that incident in the kitchens."

"...But that was back at the palace." Not to mention, anyone who tried to hurt her after Yonji had done what he did to Korovai would be a fool with a death wish. Musette flopped down onto the bed, letting herself sink into it. It was like lying on a cloud. She didn’t understand Yonji's logic sometimes. Musette had to admit it was pretty ballsy of him, trying to worm his way into staying in her room, since their last interaction alone had not ended pleasantly. “You...want to stay in my room with _me_?”

“I’m just saying, since our rooms at the palace were connected by the bathroom, it was basically like they were the same room anyway.”

Musette scrunched her face up at the ceiling, confused. “They were definitely still three different rooms?” Musette thought back to the kissing in the kitchen, and the kissing in her room before he’d found the train ticket. And then of his blackmail, and her angrily chewing him out before they’d left. _Bold_ of her to address a prince in such a way, but bold of him to have had that happen and still try to share a room. “But, um...if that’s what you think is best, then we can share this room.”

“Good. Glad we settled that.” Musette lifted her head and saw Yonji smirking with a smug look on his face, though the rest of his body language was more tense. Clearly, he had anticipated her outright refusal, or at least more of a fight. She sighed, and set her head back down. The support on the back of her neck felt amazing. 

After a minute or two of awkward silence, and Musette feeling herself beginning to nod off, she heard Yonji close the door, and then his footsteps on the hardwood floor before the mattress tilted slightly towards the edge. He laid down beside her, just close enough to brush his hand over hers. It was sweet, but Musette wasn’t sure to accept the gesture and hold his hand - she was still unhappy with how he’d strong-armed his way into coming. 

“So.” Yonji cleared his throat. “I can tell you’re still angry about last night, for some reason.”

“For some reason, yeah,” Musette repeated, not bothering to conceal the sarcasm in her voice. Right off the bat, it was evident that Yonji still didn’t think his tactics had been questionable and wrong. This was going to be a fun argument.

He seemed to miss her tone entirely. “Not that it _matters_ \- I got what I wanted and Aspen got what she wanted.”

“Do you enjoy being dense on purpose?” Musette snapped, feeling herself getting very frustrated all over again. He kept brushing his hand on hers, letting his fingers linger on her wrist. Even for a light touch, it made her skin tingle.

“Maybe I just like how you get when you’re mad.”

Musette wished she could smack him. For _weeks_ it had seemed as though he was doing things to purposely goad her. And now she had confirmation. “Do you want me to like you, or do you want me to be mad at you?” She demanded, sitting up and pulling away, swinging her feet off the bed and sitting right on the edge. How could one person be so needlessly complicated.

“I didn’t say I want you to be mad at me.” At her back, she could feel his hand touching her hair, brushing it against her shoulder. That touch sent tingle to her scalp. “You’re just...cute, when you get riled up.”

Yonji’s tone was so unconcerned and casual. Musette wasn’t sure whether to blush or get even more annoyed with him. When she didn’t respond, he sat up too, leaning back against the deep stack of pillows with his hands behind his head, looking up at the ceiling. Musette stole a glance at him, slightly bitter at how relaxed he looked already. He was even still in his pajamas from the night before, with that same fitted shirt. She caught herself letting her eyes linger on where the short sleeves were pulled tight over his upper arms, and the way his hair was hanging loose and brushing against his shoulders, and she quickly turned away again, blushing.

Unfortunately, he had noticed. “Musette.”

“Yes?”

“What would’ve happened last night if I hadn’t found that train ticket?”

If Musette had been blushing before, her face was positively on fire at that. That was certainly something she’d been thinking about for hours. Refusing to turn around and let him see how flustered she was, she stared out the window, seeing part of her reflection in the glass. She was every bit as red as she suspected. “Well...what would _you_ have wanted?”

“Me?” It somehow sounded like he hadn’t thought about her turning that right back on him. In seconds, the atmosphere in the room had gone from cozy to a strange kind of tense. It made Musette think back to the sauna incident. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Musette caved and turned to look at Yonji, bothered by how brazenly and badly he’d lied. This time, he was avoiding looking at her, looking pointedly up at the ceiling. “Funny, it didn’t really seem like that when you were on top of me in my bed.”

He finally looked at her, raising an eyebrow. “Are you bringing that up now because you want to pick up where we left off?”

Musette didn’t remember turning back around to fully face him, or moving closer to him on the bed until she was kneeling at his side. All she was aware of was the hot flare of anxiety in her stomach, even as he reached over to play with her hair some more. They were close enough that she could feel his body heat, and smell his skin, and her heart thumped nervously in her chest. “Aspen and Sofi would kill me.”

“No they won’t.”

She glanced again at the door, which was still tightly closed. She was sure it was locked as well. The rest of the chateau was calm and quiet; it was evident that Sofi and Aspen were still outside. “If they hear anything -”

“They haven’t even come in.” Yonji pointed out what Musette was already well-aware of, already looking at her the same way as he had back in her room, when he'd held her on his lap. Musette swallowed hard, and threw one more look at the door. She would be lying to herself if she feigned disinterest, but she didn’t know where to start. “I’m 100% sure we’d have heard your curly-haired friend if they’d come in -”

“I want to be in charge,” Musette blurted out, immediately cringing as her face felt as hot as the sun. She had the gall to make that demand, but it was the only way it would work. The _only_ way. Scallion had never given her a say, or any input. This could not be as _that_ had been - Musette never wanted Yonji to be even slightly comparable to Scallion. If her brain went to the wrong place once they got started, she would fall to pieces. She knew it. _“I don’t know what to do.”_

To Musette’s relief, Yonji laughed. “Oh, do you? Fine. It sounds more fun with you calling the shots anyway.” He set a hand on Musette’s thigh, ever so slightly sliding her dress up and exposing bare skin. 

“I don’t want you thinking this means I’m not still mad at you,” Musette added, stammering, as she swung a leg over his lap. His whole body was so broad, she found herself having to gently shift her weight from knee to knee to find her balance. He felt too large to comfortably fit between her legs, as they were. As she lowered herself into a straddling position on him, she felt more pleasant, nervous tingles through her body. “You _blackmailed_ me. Did you miss that lesson with Reiju? That people don’t like being blackmailed? Or did you just not take notes?”

Yonji slid both hands up Musette’s thighs as she straddled him, edging her dress closer and closer to her hips. His hands were rough, and she liked the sensation on her soft skin. “Are you going to yell at me about it all over again? I never see you mouth off to anyone else like this.”

“The last time I did, someone ended up getting stabbed.” Between her legs, Musette could feel his cock beginning to stiffen through his pants, and she pressed herself down against it. She was rewarded with another warm wave rippling through her body. He exhaled loudly, and squeezed her thighs. “And a bunch of people lost their jobs.”

“Worth it.” He let go of her thighs and grabbed her dress again, teasing at the hem and inching it further up. Musette slapped his hands, hard enough that her fingers stung. Yonji quickly let go and dropped his hands back onto her thighs. He gave her a sly, crooked smile. “Right, right, like you said...you’re in charge, aren’t you?”

Musette liked the sound of that. Nobody deferred to her - ever. Grabbing hold of his wrists, she leaned into his chest and brought her mouth against his ear. Trailing kisses from his ear to his neck wasn’t as nerve-wracking as it had been the night before, and it came more naturally to her. His breathing was getting heavier and louder the more she lavished him with attention, and it only encouraged Musette to give him more. She pulled his wrists up and set them back against the pillows on either side of his head. Her hands were too small to really lock around his wrists as tightly as she would’ve liked, but even the slightest control of him gave her a rush she’d never felt before.

Kissing Yonji’s neck turned to sucking, which immediately turned into biting. His skin was too strong for Musette to do much more than gently nip at him, lightly sucking after every bite, but it seemed to be having the desired effect. He kept squirming beneath her, twitching and pressing his hips up between her legs to let his grind down against his cock, which she could’ve _sworn_ was getting bigger still. The anxiety in her stomach had been consumed by lust with every tight, pleasurable pulse of her clit.

“ _Musette_.” She could listen to the way he groaned her name forever. Nobody had ever said it in such a way. Yonji tried to move his hands to her, to touch her anywhere, and she shoved them right back against the pillows, despite her longing to let him have his way. She knew he could overpower her any time he wanted - and he was choosing to hand over all control to her. Musette loved him for it.

“Don’t move.” Musette let go of him, and Yonji held his arms where she’d positioned them. Breathing hard and feeling another flare of anxiety, Musette gathered the hem of her dress in two tight fists and yanked it up and off. She shut her eyes tightly as she tossed it onto the floor, feeling her spill back over her shoulders again and graze against her bare chest. They’d left in a hurry the night before, at Sofi’s insistence, and Musette had scarcely had any time to change from her pajamas into her uniform in the bathroom. There’d been no time for a bra.

“Fucking...motherfucking... _fuck_.” Yonji sounded as though his brain was beginning to misfire. He was once again squirming beneath her, and Musette could tell it was taking all the self control he possessed to remain still like she’d ordered. Nervously peeking one eye open, she could see him staring open-mouthed at her tits, like she was some kind of goddess and not just the paid help. No longer concealed under her dress, her tits looked twice as big as they appeared when covered. Her nipples were a sweet shade of pink, and already very stiff. “I've wanting nothing more than to see those.”

Musette giggled nervously, emboldened by his (more than) positive response. She reached for his wrists again, noticing him lifting his head from the pillows and straining to get his face closer to her tits. Musette let go of his left wrist, shoved his head back, and then brought both hands to her chest, stopping right above her nipples. Panting slightly, she began grinding slowly on his lap, moving back and forth, trying to gauge how wet she was by how slick her underwear was against her. “Do you want to touch them?” She asked politely, the way she would’ve asked any other innocuous question while attending to him. Before she could even finish her sentence, he was nodding eagerly, not taking his eyes off them. “Be gentle.”

Barely able to stand the anticipation any longer, she let go of his arms and arched her back, pushing her tits into Yonji’s open hands. She let her body fall forward against him, and she slipped her arms behind his neck before giving a small bite on his earlobe. “Your turn to be in charge. For a little bit.”

He must have been waiting for her signal, for Musette had barely had a chance to blink before his mouth locked over hers, his tongue pressing past her lips and teeth. She tangled her fingers in his hair while kissing back ravenously, enjoying how good his hands felt on her while grinding on him all the while. It was better than what she’d fantasized about in private, equal parts forceful and tender. Even the slightest touch at the underside of her tits, or the smallest squeezes of her nipples, had her moaning into his mouth. It was more than just his touch - it was him, it was something about _him._ She tilted her pelvis forward, pressing her clit against his cock through their clothes, and rubbed herself hard onto it. There was a hard, tight pulse in her clit and she felt a hot rush of wetness that had her seeing stars. Her hands grabbed frantically at his shirt, desperately clawing at it and yanking it over his head.

Musette had never let herself go in such a way before, and she’d never felt so hungry for another person either - ever. She had always thought herself more composed. She could barely recognize the person straddling Yonji, almost fully naked, grinding so hard her legs couldn’t stop shaking - but she liked her. Musette grabbed onto his shoulders and brought herself to a full kneeling position, getting her tits perfectly in sucking range for him. He caught on quickly, sucking one nipple while teasing the other with his fingers, and Musette was completely disarmed by the sound he ripped out of her. “Sorry,” Musette gasped out, nuzzling her face at the top of his head, strands of green hair sticking to the sweat on her face. “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to be loud.”

“ _Please_ be loud. As loud as you want, and then louder than that.” It was one of the few times Yonji had ever said ‘please’ to her, his voice barely more than a growl. He dove right back into licking and sucking on her tits as Musette reached down for his hips, trying to figure out how to get them off without climbing off. His lower abs were defined in such a way that there were deep lines trailing off into his pants, and Musette desperately wanted to get to where they were pointing. After enjoying watching her struggle for a bit, Yonji did it for her, lifting his hips and sliding his pants off with her still on top of him.

At the feeling of warm, bare skin against her legs, Musette slowly broke away from another round of kissing. “Awfully forward of you,” she panted as he brought a hand to her face, pushing aside more of her hair that had fallen in her face and stuck to her skin. “To take your shorts off too.”

“I can’t remember the last time I wore any.” Yonji laughed a bit, and then began trailing small kisses from mouth to ear while his hands grabbed at her ass, pulling her underwear down in the back to get it out of the way. Musette kept rubbing against him the way she had been, her moaning getting louder, forcing her hands between him and the pillows to scratch at his back. When, at long last, she felt him trying to tug her underwear completely down and off, she climbed off of him and pushed them down, kicking them off her ankles to join her dress and his shirt and pants on the floor.

“Oh my god.” Turning her full attention back to him, Musette paused when she realized exactly what she had gotten herself into. His cock, like the rest of him, was very, very large. Musette had known it was sizable since the shower incident, but there was quite a difference between seeing it right out of the shower and seeing it after she had been getting herself off against it for who knew how long. The difference was not negligible. “Oh my fucking god.”

Equal parts excited and terrified, Musette climbed back onto his lap, lowering herself back down against the thick shaft. Her pussy splayed open wetly against him, and there was another spasm of clit and her internal muscles from the sensation. Her wetness surged again, and she could feel it dripping against him. Once she had recovered and could think again, Musette brought a hand to him, stroking what she could reach that wasn’t already covered. Right off the bat, his cock had the same happy problem as his wrists - there was no way she was getting her hand around it. She experimentally ran her fingers along its length, listening to his groans when she reached the well-fined ridge on the head. “Oh my god. How am I going to do this?”

Yonji seemed incredibly pleased by Musette’s reaction, and he leaned in to kiss her more. Musette could feel his cock straining up against her as she met him halfway for a kiss, the head briefly nestling right between her pussy lips against her opening. She shuddered at the feeling, her kisses getting wetter and sloppier. When he pulled away to lean back against the pillows once more, he gave her a smile. “You said you wanted to be in charge, so…”

“I did. I am.” Musette rested, feeling the head of his cock throbbing right against her as she tried to think of what to do. Anything that would have him getting behind her wouldn’t do. She wasn’t ready for that - she didn’t think she’d ever be. Him on top sounded like an option, but Musette couldn’t rule out the possibility of a panic attack if her mind happened to go to the wrong place. In the end, there was only one option. Taking several deep breaths to steady herself, Musette dug her knees into the soft mattress on either side of Yonji’s hips. Even more slowly and nervously, she reached behind herself, positioning his hard cock right where she needed it to be. His skin was hot against her most sensitive spots, and she could feel her legs starting to shake again.

Looking as though he could not believe what was happening, Yonji took both of Musette’s hands in his, holding her steady as she tried to balance herself. She took another deep breath and closed her eyes, and slowly lowered herself onto the head of his cock.

It had been her intent to go as slow as possible, but when she felt her pussy slide over the ridge of his head, she knew that wasn’t going to happen. The heat from the stretch alone was heavenly, but the anticipation from knowing close she was to being completely filled was a level above nirvana. Musette twisted and rocked her hips as she pushed herself down onto him, feeling more of her wetness trickling down with each motion. “Ohhh my god.” She squeezed Yonji’s hands with a death grip as she wondered if she’d ever be able to say anything else again. Bit by bit, his cock was sliding inside her, and every inch seemed to dial up the volume of her gasps and moans. “Oh my god. Oh my _god_. Ohhhh, god. _God.”_

“Musette.” Yonji’s groans were louder than hers still, and she loved the sight of him with his eyes closed, mouth open, his head hanging backwards and leaving his neck exposed. Loved the sound of him struggling to get her name out. Giggling again, Musette leaned forward to bite him some more, feeling more of his cock pushing into her as she shifted on her thighs. With her pussy on his cock and her teeth at his throat, the noises he made got even louder, filling the room. Head dizzy and light, Musette loved how he sounded, almost as much as she loved the way he felt, pressing higher up into her while she squeezed as strongly as she could. Her clit gave another massive throb and she clenched down hard when she felt it. The pleasure almost made her thighs give out beneath her as another high, noisy cry came out of her.

When she finally felt his cock fully inside her, stuffed as far in as it would go, Musette could not move. Beyond her pulling away from Yonji to sit straight up on his lap, arms wrapped around herself and knees pressing together, she couldn’t move. The stream of moans and swears coming out of her seemed never- ending, and all she could do was grind against him in circles while her knees shook, rubbing and stroking her tits all the while. Each circular motion moved him in a way that stimulated every inch inside her, making her bite down hard on her tongue as she tried to catch her breath. She brought one hand from her tits to her pelvis, pushing into herself just below her navel. “Oh my god, I can feel you like this.”

Yonji said nothing. Nothing that sounded like actual words anymore, at least.

Musette raised her hips, letting him slip ever so slightly out of her before pushing them right back down. She was rewarded with another one of the explosive pleasure bursts she’d been getting the whole time, this one stronger than the rest. Groaning, she threw her head back, her hair sweeping through the air and falling back down her back. Again, she raised her hips, further than before, and then slammed them back into place. She did it again, and again, and again, finding a steady rhythm as she leaned forward to support herself, putting her head against Yonji’s chest. Everything felt incredible and warm, and Musette couldn’t recall ever having had so much fun before. She had never so much as _seen_ this part of herself before.

Even in its steady frame, the bed shook and vibrated beneath them as their fucking picked up speed. Musette rode him for as long as she could before her legs finally did give out, leaving her fully slumped forward as Yonji immediately picked up her slack, grabbing her hips to jerk them back and forth as he thrust up into her. He was going far harder than she had the strength for, but Musette had no complaints. Only trance-like moans, with drooling in between as she clutched fast to his shoulders. “Fucking...hell...oh…”

“ _Musette_.”

“I fucking love...how you say my name…”

“I’m close.”

“Fuck...ah...Where do you want it?” Musette’s entire body was a limp, shaking mess, gripped over and over by eruptions of pleasure from her clit that rendered her unable to move. Both of their bodies were hot and sweaty, and she wouldn’t have changed a thing. “Anywhere. You can have...anywhere. Pick.”

“Your tits.”

“Called it.” Using what strength she could muster, Musette lifted herself off of him, letting his cock slide out as she let herself fall backwards, landing on her back with her head between his feet, her hair plastered to her back. A few seconds later, he was kneeling beside her, jerking off with one hand and groping and squeezing her tits with the other.

Lifting her head dazedly, Musette watched Yonji for a moment before putting her hands at the sides of her tits and pushing them together. They squished against each other appealingly as her nipples pointed up and out, all firm and pink. “Does this help?”

His only answer was the loudest groan she’d heard out of him, followed by warm, milky wetness on her tits. Closing her eyes, Musette basked in the feeling as a lazy smile spread across her lips. One of her hands traced her fingertips freely over her tits, running her fingers through his come and dragging it over her nipples. One last sharp, tight pulse in both her clit and her pussy seized her, and a loud moan of her own burst out. And then it was all over.

Yonji let himself fall onto the bed next to Musette, breathing hard and feeling blindly for her. She extended her hand to him and it grabbed it, his fingers holding tightly to hers. Musette sighed deeply, listening to her heartbeat as it began to slow, no longer pounding out of control. Even her breathing was getting back to a normal rate once more. 

“Take this.” Yonji’s free hand dropped the shirt he’d been wearing onto Musette, and she used it to wipe off most of the come. There was more than she had realized, and she kept finding spots she’d missed after every swipe of his shirt. “I’m sorry about the mess.”

“No you’re not.”

“No I’m not.” He paused. “I wanted you to come.”

Musette thought for a moment about the powerful little bursts she’d kept feeling the entire time. They certainly felt about the same as when she touched herself in private. “I did. A bunch.” 

“Really?” He sounded pleased. “Good.”

As clean as she was going to get, Musette snuggled closer to him, letting their legs tangle together as she rested her head on his chest. His heart hadn’t slowed at all yet. Musette pressed her face deeply against him, inhaling. It was all sweat and their combined smell, neither of them more distinct than the other. It was good. The room was finally beginning to cool around them, and it was soothing against her skin. “Do you think Aspen and Sofi have come in yet?”

Yonji hesitated, putting his arms around Musette to hold her tight. “I heard the front doors open a while ago.”

“Ah, fuck.” Sofi would be _ecstatic_. “Thanks for not telling me.”

“Sor -”

“No, really.” Musette put a hand to his face and pushed aside all the strands of green that had stuck to his forehead. The rest of his hair was still hanging down, a favorable change from his normal style. Musette made a note to talk to him about that later. “It would’ve ruined everything for me if I had known.” 

They laid in silence for a moment, tangled up in each other, Musette feeling his fingers running through her hair while she traced indistinguishable shapes on his chest. She remembered something she had been meaning to say. “I’ll stop being angry at you for last night if you can do two favors for me.” It was a long shot, but there was a chance Yonji would care enough to indulge her.

“Hm?” He looked at her, and they held eye contact for a bit. His eyes were blue, just as Musette’s were, but his were a deeper shade. Like his eyes were an ocean, and hers were the sky. Musette doubted he had any idea how pretty his eyes were - and whether he'd take it as a compliment or an insult if she said as much. “Like what?”

Musette took one of his hands, bringing it to her lips and kissing each of his fingers. “Throw away those notes from your sister. You don’t need them.”

Yonji looked surprised, and skeptical. “I keep forgetting to read them anyway...are you sure? Reiju said I can be abrasive.”

“You spent an extended period of time with my two best friends on the train ride up here. Do you think being abrasive is an issue?” Musette loved Aspen and Sofi but it was the truth and they all knew it.

“Done.” A look of relief on his face, he craned forward and kissed her the top of her head. “What else?”

Musette paused. The first one had been easy. Her second favor would be a reach. “Never sell me or my friends out to anyone in your family. Ever. Don’t threaten it, don’t do it.”

Yonji nodded slowly, making a face like he was thinking hard. “The blackmail thing.”

“Yes, that thing I don’t like. No blackmail, no threatening, no going behind my back.” She hoped she was getting through to him, even if he didn’t quite grasp why it mattered to her so much. She couldn't think of a better time to ask a favor of him - outside of when she'd still be riding him. “Never again. That’s the second favor.”

He laughed, and held her closer. “I don’t know why you care so much. Or why it’s so important. But that one’s even easier. Done.” Yonji put his hands on Musette’s shoulders, pulling her up and on top of him, and she kissed him deeply and gratefully. They tangled up in each other even more deeply than they had been before, and Musette felt fully, absolutely, happy.


	28. ASPEN VII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- f/f smut in the beginning  
> \- i reviewed this chapter like five times checking for typos please forgive me if you still find them  
> \- EDIT 4/21: I reviewed this chapter five more times and found more typos, I hate myself

“We’re going to act like we didn’t hear anything.”

Aspen, truthfully, hadn’t heard much. After walking in and hearing a few seconds of unmistakable sounds coming from upstairs, she’d mostly checked out. It had been years since she’d set foot instead the chateau and if it were possible, she would’ve gone the rest of her life without ever doing so again. It felt like the place hadn’t been touched since the last visit. All the old framed photos of past Frostbanes were still neatly hung on the walls, and Aspen gave them a cursory glance as she hung her coat by the door, following Sofi as she held her music book and chocolates to her chest. It had been awhile since she’d seen so much black hair, so many sets of green eyes. It was almost an alien feeling, seeing so many people that looked like her.

Sofi took an abrupt turn into the lounge, what was basically a private in-house bar for the Frostbane family. Back in the days where there had been more of the family, someone had taken the time to have the entire room soundproofed to protect sleeping guests from the raucous parties that would go into the early hours of the morning...or so Aspen’s father had told her. She took her shoes off beside the door, as she always had when she was little, and she glanced up at a photo directly at eye-level for her. When she had been smaller, she used to stare at it for hours. It was her father, back when he’d been healthy and strong, and he had his arms around a much-smaller woman. Her hair was bright, fireball red, but with Aspen’s wavy, messy texture, hanging to her waist. They both had their arms around the woman’s large, rounded belly, grinning goofily at the camera.

“Hey.” Sofi stuck her head out of the lounge, holding a large bottle of vodka in one hand and sour mix in the other. It looked as though she was well into raiding the bar they had never been allowed near in their previous visits. “Coming in?”

Aspen pointed at Sofi’s feet. “You’re supposed to take your shoes off first.”

Sofi turned back into the lounge, laughing. “Why, who’s gonna yell at us now? Come on.”

Sighing inwardly, Aspen followed her in. It was like walking into a time capsule. All the leather chairs and couches were in the same positions they had always been, with glass tables and fancy lamps dotted between. Sofi was behind the glass-topped back, mixing some ungodly fluorescent pink concoction in an oversized hurricane glass, and she was still talking about what Musette and Yonji were loudly getting into. “I’ve never heard Musette like that. Have you?”

“ _Obviously_ not.” Aspen wandered around the lounge, through all the furniture that had once seemed so much bigger. Opposite the bar, the windows were lined up neatly in a row, all frosted glass that sparkled when the light hit it. She had always been told it was the room for the grown-ups, but she and Sofi had always snuck in and played while said grown-ups were still asleep. One of the last times Aspen could remember, she and Sofi had run through the room with toy swords and eyepatches (actually just bandages, and they stung to yank off later), playing at being pirates.

Back then, Sofi had been much faster than Aspen, quickly scrambling up the back of the biggest armchair, meant for Aspen’s father. She’d held onto the top of the chair while trying to swing her wooden sword, her feet slipping and sliding against the flat back as she tried to pull herself up the rest of the way. “You’ll never get me up here!” Sofi, curls already so wild and poofing in every direction, had given Aspen a wicked grin. “I’m the pirate queen!”

Aspen - much better at using her telekinesis when she had been so small - had launched herself straight up at Sofi, tackling her to the floor. Sofi had screeched like she had been stabbed before erupting into giggles while Aspen peppered her face with tiny, sticky kisses.

The floor shook with the pounding of footsteps, and then Nexus was in the doorway, still in a robe with his bare chest exposed beneath. Aspen could still picture that whole scene clearly in her head as she ran her hand along the cool leather of a couch arm. He had been so young and in shape back then, his hair fully blonde, stuck up in weird sorts of ways from how he’d slept on it. “You two aren’t supposed to be in here!” He’d scolded them both, putting Aspen under one arm and Sofi under the other and carrying them back out - it had been easy for him, and Aspen could remember hanging onto his arm and trying to tickle him. “You’ve already broken that chair once. I’m not going to look the other way while it gets broken again.”

Aspen stopped short as she pictured Young!Nexus in her head. He looked bizarrely like a blonde Ichiji, looking back - perhaps she didn’t remember it as well as she thought after all.

“Are you listening?” Sofi had moved to sit on the bar itself, resting her feet on a bar stool and rocking it back and forth. She sipped at her drink, which looked like it was full of highlighter ink, her long cardigan fanned out over the bar like butterfly wings. “We’re not gonna breathe a word about it to her.”

“Tell that to yourself.” If anyone was going to bring it up within seconds of seeing Musette again, it was Sofi. Aspen wouldn’t even put it past Sofi to do something extra like applauding when Musette entered the room. She continued wandering, making her way to the far corner where her father’s chair still sat, angled for a full view of the room. On the table at the right hand side, she noticed a nearly-empty liquor bottle. “Did you leave this here?”

Sofi paused from her excited rambling about Musette and Yonji to raise her glass in Aspen’s direction, sloshing some over her hand and onto her skirt. It seemed to be hitting hard already. “I’ve been at the bar - where I belong - the whole time we’ve been here.”

Aspen picked up the bottle, examining it. It was evident from the label that the scotch had not been leftover from the last time. She held it up for Sofi to see as she walked back over to her, scratching at her itchy staff dress. “Scotch? Not yours?”

“Ew, scotch?” Sofi took a long sip of her drink, which smelled like paint thinner. “Not mine. Maybe Musette and Yonji?”

“Hm.” Aspen sat on the black bar stool next to Sofi’s feet, in front of where Sofi had set her chocolates and music book. She sat the bottle by the chocolates, and raised an eyebrow at Sofi. “Have you ever seen Musette drink? Ever?”

“No,” Sofi admitted. “A first?”

“I’m thinking Musette has the nerve to either get drunk _or_ fuck Yonji. Not both.” Aspen supposed it could have been just his, but that didn’t seem right either. She didn’t like the thought of not knowing who had left the bottle - and by her father’s seat, no less. “Did the train attendant happen to mention how long before our bags will get dropped off? I don’t want to wear this fucking dress anymore.”

Sofi shrugged, and broke into a fit of stuttering coughs following another long gulp of her offensively pink drink. The strong odor of alcohol made Aspen’s eyes water, and she turned her head away while Sofi doubled over, banging her fist on the bar. When she recovered, tears were beginning to stream, and she took another drink immediately. “I don’t think she did. I mean it can’t be more than an hour or so? Maybe less? How long have we been here already?”

The coat and shoes were gone, but Aspen remained in the staff dress she’d been wearing for more than 12 hours. It had been cozy during the times she’d been out in the snow, but it was uncomfortable and itchy against her sensitive skin. The fabric across her chest rubbed back and forth with every movement she made, and she was sure she’d have a rash once the dress finally came off. All her clothes were in the bag Sofi had packed for her, along with the all-too-important marriage papers she’d stolen from Ichiji’s father. Until the bags showed up, there would be no changing and no reviewing the contract. “At least we’re out of Snøvanger. It looked for a second there like I wasn’t going to get away.”

Sofi side-eyed her, a tiny smile forming on her lips as she sipped at her drink. “Are you feeling better from earlier?”

“Yes,” Aspen lied. She’d hoped her earlier crying would be cathartic, and a release. It had been neither, only stressing her out further before she’d even set foot in the house she hadn’t been in since her father had died. She was gonna need at least two of Sofi’s special drinks in her system before she’d feel remotely okay. But she didn’t want Sofi to worry. “I feel fine.”

“Good, because…” Pounding down the rest of her drink, Sofi set her glass down and shoved the scotch, chocolates, and music book further down the bar, nearly toppling them all to the floor. She pulled her legs off the stool as she slid in front of Aspen, resting her legs over her shoulders and using them to pull her in close. Aspen had a perfect view up Sofi’s dainty lace skirt, and could see she wasn’t wearing underwear. “I think you have some lost time you could be making up for while we wait for the bags.”

Aspen could not have been farther from _in the mood_ , but she supposed Sofi was right. She rested a hand on Sofi’s thigh, slowly rubbing her skin. Sofi was always so warm and so soft, and as Aspen slid her hand further up her skirt, she could tell she was already wet. She prodded her fingers further, and they easily probed into the damp softness between Sofi’s legs. In response to even the slightest touch, Sofi’s head sagged backwards as she moaned.

“ _Fuck_ , sweet girl, I’ve missed you.”

For some reason, Sofi’s words made Aspen’s stomach churn sourly, but she tried her best to ignore it as she slipped two fingers up and into Sofi, moving in the motion that she knew Sofi loved as her fingers were squeezed tight. The back of her hand went flat against the surface of the bar, and Aspen noticed Sofi’s heat was fogging up the glass as the first few drips of her juices trickled off her fingers. Drunk!Sofi was a spectacle, almost as much as when Aspen overdid it...but Aspen didn’t want to think about that. Still not in the mood but eager to heap attention on her best friend, Aspen lowered her face to her hand and pressed her tongue just above her fingers, just off side from Sofi’s clit.

A shake ripped through Sofi’s body, and she clutched at the back of Aspen’s head with both hands as her thighs clamped tightly against her cheeks. “Oh, god,” Sofi groaned, her voice still far quieter than what they’d heard coming from Musette upstairs. “God, Aspen.”

Sofi had a spicy, earthy flavor that Aspen had sorely missed, and she lapped up every drop as best as she could. Even in spite of herself - in spite of _everything_ \- Aspen was beginning to feel warm and aroused, the way she always did with Sofi. Every curve and fold felt like being welcomed back as she moved the flat of her tongue directly onto Sofi’s clit and moved it in lazy spiral motions. Sofi began shaking harder, her thighs squirming against Aspen’s face as louder, longer moans slipped out of her mouth. 

“Fuck, ah...I’ve missed you...I’ve missed you so much…”

Too much, it seemed. Aspen had scarcely sucked her clit at all when Sofi began bucking hard against her face, ramming into her nose and smothering her with her pussy. Aspen moved her free hand to hold Sofi back down against the bar, at the same time pulling her head out of the danger zone. A nosebleed would ruin the moment - it had in the past. She couldn’t pull back too far with the deathgrip Sofi had on her hair. Aspen could feel slickness on her cheeks, gliding against Sofi’s thighs, and Aspen licked off what she could reach with just her tongue. After several long seconds, Sofi started to calm down, breathing raggedly. Looking up from between her legs, Aspen could see that she had pulled her shirt up to fondle herself, leaving her round, soft tits on display. Aspen had always loved her warm, golden skin - it looked better than her own pale, porcelain shade.

“That was fast,” Aspen commented, trying not to sound as cheated as she felt. It wasn’t about her, she knew that, and Sofi looked more than satisfied with her head still hanging back and her chest heaving. 

“We’re not done.” Shaking her head as she regained composure, Sofi took her legs from off of Aspen’s shoulders and hopped off the bar. Before Aspen could say a word, Sofi lunged forward and grabbed her around her wrists, yanking her off the stool. Aspen’s breathing froze as though her chest was in a vice. She tried to twist away, and Sofi’s grip on her wrists tightened exponentially. “My turn.”

Heart going from a pleasant beat to pounding out of her chest, Aspen did not get a chance to protest or pull away before Sofi shoved her backwards onto the closest couch. The leather was stiff and cold against her back, even through the staff dress. Sofi quickly climbed over her, pinning her down by her wrists again as she forced her knees inside Aspen’s. Oblivious to what Aspen felt was her obvious discomfort, Sofi leaned in and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek, pausing for a moment to lick off her own juices that Aspen had missed. “It’s been too long. I thought I was gonna go insane.”

“Sofi -” Aspen tried to sit up, not sure how she was able to speak with how tight her chest was constricting. Out of nowhere, she was hit by a solid wave of nausea that made her feel as though the room were tilting sideways. _“What the fuck is happening?”_

“Nope nope nope, you _shush_.” Sofi shoved her back down. “This is the first time I’ve had you all to myself. I’m tired of sharing you with Ichiji...considering he doesn’t share.”

Aspen opened her mouth, and no words came out. She could feel herself breaking out in a cold sweat all over her body, quickly soaking through the dress as Sofi began drunkenly fumbling for a way to get it off. _“It’s just Sofi,”_ Aspen tried to remind herself. _“It’s just Sofi she’s only messing around it’s okay -”_

Giving up on the dress, Sofi pulled back slightly, and Aspen snapped her legs back together as fast as she could. Still not getting it, Sofi let out a giggle as she put one hand on each knee and shoved Aspen’s legs back open.

A split second later, Aspen found herself alone on the couch, staring up at the wooden beams in the ceiling, breathing so hard she felt herself going lightheaded. She could feel her hair beginning to stick to the sweat on the back of her neck and she shoved her hand between her hair and the skin as she sat back up. Sofi was on the floor in front of the couch, clothes rumpled, eyes wide in surprise as she looked at Aspen. “Did you just shove me off you?”

“Sofi, I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened.” Aspen could finally freely speak again, and she was vomiting all of her words out at once. Her breathing was still a frantic mess, and the shaking of her chest was forcing her dress to rub over the same raw spot, exacerbated by the sweat that soaked her skin. She held her hands out to Sofi, and saw that she was trembling. “I don’t know what just happened, Sofi, I’m so so sorry.”

Sofi blinked slowly at Aspen as she seemed to process what had just happened, and Aspen could feel hot tears welling up in her eyes for the second time that day. _“What’s wrong with me?”_ Her heart was starting to hurt as she watched Sofi climb back onto the couch, sitting normally as she looked at Aspen with a confused look on her face. Sofi managed a weak smile as Aspen’s crying started to edge into ugly sobbing, and she gingerly patted her on the thigh.

“No, it’s fine.” Sofi’s facial expression certainly did not seem as though everything was fine. After a few tense moments of silence (and Aspen trying desperately to get her crying under control), Sofi stood up again, tucking her tits back into her blouse. “I just realized, we’ve been listening for the door for our bags to get dropped off, and this room is soundproof.”

“I’ll come with you.” Eager to move past whatever had happened, Aspen jumped to her feet and followed close behind Sofi, reaching for her hand and grasping it tightly. They left the lounge and found that the rest of the chateau was quiet; Musette and Yonji had finished their antics upstairs for the time being. Aspen followed Sofi through the long, wide hallway that ran from the front of the house to the back, passing a bathroom, a kitchen, and other rooms that neither of them had used when they were children. 

The room at the very back of the house was dark and warm, usually reserved for getting dressed again after the use of the private hot springs at the back of the property. Aside from that, the back door was also where deliveries were received, both of luggage from the train and food. Sofi switched on the dimmed ceiling lights and threw open the door. She interrupted a much-older woman who had been standing on the other side, arm outstretched to knock. At her feet were all of their bags and Aspen’s violin case.

“About time!” Sofi didn’t spare the woman as much as a second look before grabbing as many of the bags and she could and pulling them over the threshold. Even standing a few feet behind, Aspen could smell the booze coming off of her in waves. “You guys used to be much faster in dropping off our bags.”

The older woman - with warm, dark skin and expertly coiffed silver hair that matched her expensive fur-trimmed coat - looked highly affronted. “I _beg_ your pardon.”

Sofi, opening her bag and beginning to dig through it, waved her off. “It’s fine, you’re pardoned.”

“Apologies, ma’am.” Aspen, realizing this was not any kind of delivery person, quickly jumped in before Sofi could make things worse. She stepped in front of Sofi, standing between her and the woman, and bowed much in the way she’d seen Musette bow when apologizing. “I’m sure she meant it as a joke. It’s the first day of our holiday vacation and she’s had a bit to drink already, it seems…”

Narrowing her amber-colored eyes, the woman folded her arms across her sizable chest. Standing closer to her, Aspen could see that she was far taller than her and Sofi both - perhaps even taller than Nexus. “It is scarcely past noon. I do wonder what the Duchess Sonia Sanofi would have to say about this.”

At the mention of her legendarily strict mother’s name, Sofi dropped what she had been doing and looked at the woman in horror, her mouth sagging open.

Seemingly not done, the woman rounded on Aspen next, and Aspen involuntarily flinched when she saw her eyes flash. “And you, your royal highness - _why_ are you dressed as a member of your own household help? Princesses should not dress in such a way.”

Never fond of being rebuked by a stranger, Aspen recovered from her momentary quailing and dropped her polite act. “And who the fuck are you?”

“Shh!” Sofi tackled Aspen from behind, clamping her hands over her mouth. Hanging off of her and pulling her towards the floor, she hissed, “If she calls my mom, I’m _fucked.”_

“The last I had heard, you were in Snøvanger, hosting the royal Vinsmoke family of Germa - including your future husband, Hoarfrost’s future king.” Ignoring Aspen’s question, she looked disapprovingly at the bags gathered at their feet. The mention of Ichiji as the future king and her future husband made Aspen’s blood pressure spike, and her hands balled into tight, furious fists. “And yet...here you are, with what I’d imagine are only the attendants you chose. I see relations with Germa are off to a great start.”

“We brought a member of the Vinsmoke family with us though!” Sofi drunkenly volunteered, bobbing her head excitedly into Aspen’s shoulder. “We definitely did! Just, you know, not Ichiji.”

Ripping Sofi’s hand from her mouth, Aspen stepped onto the back porch and charged up to the woman. The woman was far taller than Aspen had initially realized, but it made no difference. She stopped just short of getting right in her face, mostly out of respect for the heart attack she knew Nexus would have if he could see. Ignoring the cold that bit hard at her bare feet as her rage grew, she growled, “You don’t get to speak to _me_ like that.”

“It would have been such a small gesture to invite Prince Ichiji.” Completely unmoved by Aspen’s fury, the woman continued to stare down at her with disapproval. “Instead you chose to slight the heir to Germa who, I remind you, is our future king and an infamous underworld warmonger. Your fiance. Who taught you to be so exceptionally foolish?”

Aspen had heard more than enough as her blood began to boil. This woman - whom she did not know - possessed an otherworldly amount of nerve. She had _no idea_ what Aspen had gone through before finally getting away from her ‘future husband.’ Aspen was not going to let herself be scolded like she was an 8-year-old all over again. “I don’t know who you are.” She spoke in as controlled of a voice as she could muster, though she could feel the walls of the chateau behind her beginning to vibrate. “Nor do I care. I want you to leave.”

Despite having tried as hard as she could to restrain herself - as Nexus would have urged her to, had he been there - both windows flanking the back door cracked loudly, splitting the relative silence of the back property. Sofi, who had been standing essentially between both windows, let out a loud gasp and fell backwards over the bags in surprise. Aspen was immediately embarrassed of her momentary loss of control - after having spent so long suppressing it entirely around Ichiji, it was harder than ever to use the powers she’d had her entire life. _“I will never get used to this.”_

Surprisingly, the woman only raised an eyebrow at both windows, and then looked back at Aspen with an expression of mild disappointment. Sighing, she shook her head and turned to walk back off the porch. “As you command. Slipping up in such a way, though? How embarrassing.” She started down the steps, setting an elegantly gloved hand on the railing. “Perhaps you really are hopeless.”

 _That_ had been unexpected. “Wait!” As Aspen’s brain caught up to what she’d heard, she ran to the edge of the porch as the woman descended the stairs. The cold had numbed her feet, and the pins and needles sensation was uncomfortable. How had this woman been completely unphased by that outburst? Wind chapping at her face, Aspen leaned over the edge as the woman stepped onto the lower walkway. “You...you didn’t give me your name.”

“Cassiopeia.” She paused, and gave Aspen an unreadable look. “I was once a tutor to the Frostbane family.”

And with that, she kept walking, following the walkway around the corner of the chateau and out of sight.

Intrigued, Aspen made to follow her, and Sofi came up from behind her and grabbed her around the waist. Dragging her back inside and slamming the door closed, Sofi ignored Aspen’s angry protests.

“I want to talk to her!”

“You’re barefoot and you don’t have your coat.”

“She said she was a tutor for my family!” Aspen didn’t know _anyone_ who had served her family back when there was still an actual family. Only the handful of people who had served her mother and father. On top of that, she had been completely unfazed by Aspen’s telekinesis. She could not get over that. “ _What if there were other members of my family like me?”_ Aspen could only imagine what that would mean.

Sofi seemed unimpressed and unmoved as she fumbled to pull the heavy, dark curtains tightly over the broken windows. “Are you forgetting just how many Frostbanes there were? You guys probably had a ton of tutors.” She turned back to Aspen and nodded at the bags. “You said you wanted to change, didn’t you? All our stuff is here now.”

Aspen, hit by another wave of guilt over her breakdown in the lounge, did not press the matter with Sofi. She had two weeks ahead of her in Neigebelle, five of them without Ichiji and the others. That gave her plenty of time to find Cassiopeia and speak to her. For now, she could change, review the marriage papers, and try to pull herself together so she could hopefully pull Sofi aside to make up for her behavior. Pursing her lips, Aspen opened her bags and reached in for the papers and a change of clothes as Sofi dragged Musette and Yonji’s bags down the hall to the stairs.

She stopped dead, hands buried in the bag. “Sofi.”

“Yah.” Sofi called from down the hall.

“Where is the envelope with the papers?” Aspen didn’t feel the envelope she’d left for Sofi amidst the leggings, tops, and gratuitous lingerie. She reached further in, feeling into every corner. A small vibrator, her ice packs, the birth control - and no papers. The same creeping panic she had felt before was back with a vengeance. 

“The papers?” Sofi walked back over, head tilted in curious confusion. Her eyes were drooping and out of focus; it looked like her drink from earlier had been heavier than Aspen had originally anticipated. It was a miracle she was still standing. “In...your bag? I don’t think they’re like...in mine…”

Abandoning her bag, Aspen grabbed Sofi’s, which was still lying sideways on the floor where she’d dropped it. It was even messier than Aspen’s, with lots of lace and silk in irritatingly feminine colors that suited Sofi perfectly. The bag was equally devoid of the very important marriage papers. Aspen sat down hard on the hardwood floor, leaning her back into the wall and covering her face with both hands. She wanted to scream. The _entire_ purpose of the trip had been to get away from Ichiji and review those papers. To find some kind of way out of the marriage. And now they were gone. Aspen’s breathing grew rapid and shallow as she gripped tight at her face.

Even as tipsy as she was, Sofi could tell Aspen was upset. “Is everything okay?”

“Fucking _no_ , Sofi!” Aspen’s furious response surprised even her, and the wall she was sitting against heaved, shaking the items on its shelves. Tears began to flow freely down her cheeks, making her even angrier. It wasn’t _fair._

Sofi nodded slowly, standing a safe distance away from any shelves, windows, or any other items that could spontaneously shoot across the room or explode. She knew the drill well - and Aspen hated that it had happened so many times that there even _was_ a drill. “Aspen,” Sofi spoke slowly and calmly, sounding like she was fighting through her drunken fog. “I swear I grabbed those papers.”

Aspen had seen with her own eyes that the envelope with the marriage papers had been taken from her bathroom and replaced with the staff uniform. Just as she and Sofi had discussed. Somehow, they were gone all the same. Aspen knew Sofi would never forget something so important. “I know!” The wall shuddered again behind her.

“Don’t be sad, they must’ve fallen out somewh -”

“I’M NOT SAD!” Aspen exploded, openly crying angry tears. Getting to her feet, she struggled to take several deep breaths to calm herself - to no avail. A few of the small figurines above flew off their shelves and shattered against the opposite wall. The framed photos began to shake and clatter where they were mounted. Sofi cautiously took a step back, looking more concerned than before.

“Aspen…”

Quickly, Aspen held up both hands. “I...am not mad at you. It’s not your fault.” Two more figurines shattered, and the rattling of the walls became more uncontrolled. It was likely only a matter of time before Musette and Yonji came down to see what was happening. Aspen’s attempts to pull herself together weren’t working at all. “I think I just...I just need to lie down.” She was unraveling over _papers._ Papers that she knew, deep down, would be just as airtight as the version of the contract she and Nexus had. She had freaked out when Sofi had been trying to mess around with her - and had even pushed her. What was _wrong_ with her?

“Yes, you should go lie down.” Sofi’s expression of concern deepened, her brown eyes wide and sad. A framed photo fell from the wall behind her and smashed to the ground.

Dragging her bag behind her, Aspen practically ran down the hall and up the stairs, still trying hard to calm down. Tears were speckling the fabric of her dress, leaving spots of darker grey dotted all over. Behind her, Aspen could tell the shelves had stopped shaking, but the rattling of the photos was still far too loud. She hesitated at the landing before taking a step to the left, and hearing thumping of a bedframe down the hall just ahead.

Aspen went the other direction. From where she stood, she could see clear to the end of the hallway to a set of double doors, behind which was the largest bedroom in the entire chateau. That room had always been reserved for the head of the family. Once, it had been her father’s - her father’s and her mother’s. Now she supposed it was hers. Just the thought of stepping back inside filled Aspen with dread. How was she supposed to sleep in the room where her father had passed away? Instead, she chose a bedroom directly at the top of the stairs, tearing her eyes away from the double doors.

The bedroom she had chosen was not bad - all the bedrooms looked the same anyway. Same furniture, fireplaces, massive mountains of pillows on every bed. The view from the window was of the back property - with its private slopes and hot springs - but was otherwise unremarkable. She tossed her bag onto one of the chairs before collapsing onto the bed, burying her face in the pillows. It wasn’t that she was sad - not _really_ \- but the tears kept coming with no end in sight. She supposed angry crying was a thing, anyway. What a fucking stupid decision, just leaving the purloined marriage papers to sit in her bag. The smart thing would’ve been to take them out once on the train, and not let them out of her sight. At all. How _stupid_ of her.

After a few minutes of ugly, noisy crying, she heard the door open and close. She heard her violin case being set down - a sound she knew anywhere. “Thanks.” Her voice was horribly snot-choked and snuffly, but Sofi didn’t say anything about it. She sat down beside Aspen on the bed and stayed silent, and Aspen was grateful for it. Usually, Sofi stayed far the fuck away from her until the danger had long since passed. She started stroking Aspen’s back after a few seconds, while Aspen continued to sniffle pathetically.

Before the first stroke had moved from between her shoulders to mid-back, Aspen knew something was amiss. She knew Sofi’s touch, without alcohol to blunt her senses, and this was not it. The hands were too large, the fingertips rough through the dress, and the gesture was too clumsy - as if giving comfort did not come naturally. Even with her clogged nose and her face in the pillows, Aspen could detect a warm, spicy scent that made her the slightest bit dizzy. The combination of the familiar scent and touch made her freeze completely in place. She knew these two things well: they had made their way into her daydreams before. There was just no way.

Aspen rolled onto her back, sweeping her hair out of her face to see clearly. Niji - wearing his ever-present _fucking goggles -_ was sitting beside her on the bed, one leg casually crossed over the other, with one hand on Aspen and the other holding _the same marriage papers Aspen had just been melting down over_. From where she lay, she could see Germa’s seal on the pages. He glanced over at her, and smiled when he saw that she’d turned face-up. Aspen opened her mouth and he moved the hand that had been touching her to cover it quickly.

“Don’t scream.” He turned his attention back to the papers, flipping to the next page with one hand. Even just two words out of his mouth in that frustratingly deep voice of his made Aspen’s skin tickle. The bastard. “I have a special image in my head of what it’s going to be like this first time I make you scream, and this isn’t it.”

Angrily prying a hand from her mouth for the second time that day, Aspen longed to punch him. How had her plan, which included the important detail of _no Vinsmokes,_ ended up with _two Vinsmokes?_ “ _Why,”_ she snarled, keeping her voice low as she ignored his comment completely. “Are _you_ here?”

“I wasn’t going to pass up a chance to see you in your element, without Ichiji breathing down your neck.” He tossed the papers onto the bed at his feet, and his grin got wider. Aspen sat up and dove for the papers, setting them carefully on the bedside table while shooting Niji a scowl. The fucking _nerve._ “Why, did you think your little plan was a _secret?”_

“It was!” How did she keep ending up in bed with Niji Vinsmoke? _How?_ Aspen was furious. She turned away to wipe whatever snot and tears were still on her face before continuing to hiss at him. “These are the papers I thought I’d lost. Where did you get them??”

He sighed, shaking his head, and leaned against the pillows. It seemed like his shirt was a deeper V-neck than usual, and Aspen struggled to keep her eyes on his face and not the exposed section of chest. Having seen him shirtless before, now, she knew his chest was every bit as nice as the preview suggested. “I got them from your bag. Obviously.”

“You went through my bag??” Her bag, which Sofi had filled with far too much lingerie - lingerie Aspen hadn’t even seen before - and the thought of Niji rummaging through it made her die inside. “How did you manage to follow us? And why the _fuck_ did you think I’d be cool with you just...just tagging along like that??” None of Aspen’s words were coming out the way she wanted them to, and Niji was smiling broader and broader the more flustered she became.

Niji held up three fingers. “One - yes, I did. I like the way you pack for vacations.”

The urge to punch him was back.

“Two - you _are_ aware that your friend sticks out in a crowd, aren’t you? I must have followed her for hours yesterday without her noticing.” His smile somehow got wider still, and Aspen was surprised to find that the way he showed all of his teeth had managed to grow on her in just a month’s time. “Not that she could have...still, a blind man could’ve figured out your ‘plan.’” Slowly and purposefully, he brought his hand to her face, resting her chin in his palm. The stroke of his thumb against her jawline made her skin erupt in intense tingling she could feel even in her gums, and she wasn’t sure she liked it. “And three...considering you wouldn’t have gotten away from Ichiji without me, I feel like getting to come along is a fair reward.”

Aspen had completely forgotten about the staffer who had come to fetch Ichiji the night before, at Niji’s request. She had cut it close, and didn’t have a Plan B. If not for that, she would’ve had a much harder time getting out of the palace. “You…” Aspen hesitated, looking up at Niji, who was still smiling. This was the _second_ time he’d gotten her away from his brother. Aspen didn’t like the thought of being in his debt. “You sent that staffer?”

 _That_ made Niji laugh, and he didn’t try to keep his voice down the way Aspen had hers. “ _Staffer?_ You mean -” He cleared his throat, and the wheezing, tired voice of the staffer issued forth. “ _Bring Princess Aspen when you come see Prince Niji, you short-sighted idiot.”_

Annoyance replaced by shock, Aspen could not believe what she was hearing. It was more than just mimicking someone else’s voice, his voice had _become_ someone else’s. She had never heard anything quite like it, and it unsettled her. “That...was you?”

“It was.”

Fury filled her again. “You told Ichiji to bring me with him!”

“It was the only way to guarantee that he’d leave you behind, saying that I wanted you to come.” The stroke of his thumb on her skin was firmer, more insistent, and the tingling multiplied. “He doesn’t trust me around you. Not after the last time.”

“But -”

“No more questions from you. It’s my turn to ask questions.” Very slowly, he lifted her head by her chin and Aspen let him, not taking her eyes off his face. She followed his lead until she was on her knees, the scratchy dress fabric rubbing into her skin, his face almost as close to hers as it had been that night in his room. It made her breath catch strangely in her chest, but differently than it had been downstairs. “Did you like your gifts, princess?”

 _“Gifts?_ ” Aspen paused, the gears in her brain sticking momentarily. The music book and the chocolate! Only one other passenger on the train. The odd way the attendant had asked her about the luggage for all guests bound for the chateau. Aspen’s face was going red and hot as Niji held it close to his. She felt like a fucking idiot. _“How am I so unobservant?”_

Niji took her silence and red face as affirmation, and he chuckled. He led her face closer still, to where his lips nearly brushed hers. She could see her tense, nervous expression reflected back at her in the lenses of those fucking goggles. “You’ve gone right back to avoiding me again, I’ve noticed.”

Aspen shook her head, keeping her chin balanced in his hand. As close as she was now, she could smell booze on his breath - and that was the answer to the scotch that she’d found downstairs. “Ichiji never leaves me alone anymore.”

“We’re alone _now_.” The tone of his voice sent shivers down her spine.

“So we are.” Aspen was unsure how to respond. Her eyes kept darting from his lips to those fucking goggles. Germa had arrived in Hoarfrost over a month ago, and she was still yet to see him without them tightly strapped in place, fully obscuring his eyes. Why was he so insistent on keeping his eyes covered? “Are you ever going to take those off?”

For a split second, his mouth pulled into an angry grimace, and then it was back to the same sly smile, his lip curling. Aspen wondered how much trouble she’d be in if she nipped at it, if it would taste like the alcohol she was sure was lingering on his tongue. She was sure it was his intention for her to find out shortly.

“Well?” She pressed when he didn’t answer her.

“I’ll consider letting you earn that.” He pulled his hand from under her chin and Aspen pressed her mouth firmly to his, falling against his chest as she was tightly wrapped in his arms. The marriage papers could stand to wait a bit longer, she decided, now that she knew where they were. Odd as it was, she felt happy he had followed, and happy he was there with her.


	29. NEXUS VIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Unpleasant descriptions of violence in this chapter

The morning following Aspen’s departure for Neigebelle, Nexus holed up in his office with the aim of reviewing his past lab reports behind a solidly locked door. He had added the pin code lock after the boxes and boxes of old reports had been brought over from the lab, and only Reiju and Wintergreen had been given the access code - and had been told to not share it with anyone under any circumstances. Even in the early hours of the day, the palace was abuzz with the news of Aspen’s hasty departure, and Nexus knew it would only be salt in the wound for Judge, who had still been smarting over the entire affair when Nexus had finally gone to bed.

Nexus had snuck into his office first thing in the morning, when most of the staff wasn’t even up yet. He did not see Judge or Ichiji - a small blessing. He hadn’t seen Niji either, and that made him nervous. Ichiji was convinced Niji had followed Aspen, and had gone on an uncharacteristic, mumbled tirade about his brother conspiring against him. Nexus had left Judge to soothe his eldest son, but he knew one or both of them would try to corner him as soon as they were able. The sun had barely risen when he got the first loud, angry knock on his door.

“I’m busy.”

“I haven’t finished discussing this matter regarding Princess Aspen with you!” Of course it was Judge, first thing in the morning, because _of course it was_. “This was a purposeful slight against Ichiji, on her part.”

Obviously. Aspen had intended exactly that, and Nexus knew it. “I’m busy.”

“Why did she take Niji and Yonji with her?” Judge was not done with his angry blustering, Nexus’s monotone repetition lost on him. 

“I’m busy.”

“Open this door immediately!”

“I’m busy.”

Nexus wasn’t sure how many more times he said it before Judge finally left, his angry stomping shaking the floor of the office. There had scarcely been a moment for Nexus to breathe before there was another knock at the door - this one more restrained, quiet. His gut told him it was Ichiji, even more so when his repeated statements of “I’m busy” were met with silence, and then further knocking. Nexus stayed put in his chair behind the locked door, even less inclined to face his eldest nephew, who’d likely spent the whole night stewing, just as his father had. It went on for what felt like ages, with long gaps in between. He had no idea if Ichiji was leaving and coming back, or just...waiting...outside the door. 

Miserable, Nexus flipped through page after page of his months-old reports, wondering how on _earth_ he was going to get back to his apartment without being accosted that evening. The knocking was incredibly nerve-wracking, keeping him on edge during a time when he was already feeling stressed far beyond his limits. Even considering the letter she’d left, he wished Aspen had not put him in this situation. It was almost more than he could stand. _“Just a few days,”_ Nexus sighed, setting aside a report and picking up a new one. _“And then we’ll all be together in Neigebelle and things won’t be any better than they’ve been.”_

Around what Nexus guessed was lunchtime, he heard the lock code being entered and the door swinging open. When he looked up, he saw Reiju, dressed in dark jeans and a pink sweater. She was carrying a tray with lunch for the both of them. “I thought you could use some food, uncle.” Setting the food down across the desk from him on a spot clear of papers and pens, Reiju flashed him a sweet smile before grabbing the spare chair and pulling it to the desk. “Since it looks like you’re planning to stay in here for the next five days.” 

“I’m going to do my damndest.” It was meant to be a joking response, but Nexus’s voice came out completely devoid of any humor.

Reiju gave a small laugh, and took a small stack of reports that had been buried at the bottom of one of his filing boxes. She placed them on her lap before taking a sip of the lemonade she’d brought. “Have my father and Ichiji already come by to bother you today?”

“They have.” Nexus put the reports he’d finished reviewing back in one of the boxes and took out a new stack. None of them were new - nearly every single one was dated from before his family had arrived in Hoarfrost, mostly September and early October. That had been a hectic time for him, and he’d only ever skimmed these reports before now. “I can see they filled you in.”

Pursing her lips, Reiju shook her head as she picked up the first report in her stack. “It’s all father can talk about. And I have to say...I haven’t seen Ichiji lose his cool like that in years. Double humiliating for him, I’m sure that’s how he sees it. On top of being slighted in favor of Niji and Yonji…”

Sighing deeply, Nexus glanced over the top of his perpetually smudged and dirty reading classes at Reiju. “We don’t know that Aspen took Niji with her.” As someone who had practically raised Aspen from the age of 8 onward, Nexus was pretty sure he understood her thought process. If she had to pick between having her hands full with Sofi, her best friend, or Niji, a guest that she loathed...she’d pick Sofi. And she would never entertain the idea of taking _both_. 

“Nobody knows where he is, and nobody has seen him since yesterday evening,” Reiju pointed out, lifting a forkful of food from the tray to her mouth. “Some of his luggage is missing, on top of that -”

“Ah, sorry,” Nexus waved a hand in the air to cut her off. “I should have clarified. I said we don’t know that Aspen took him. The possibility that he followed them of his own volition is a possibility that seems far more likely to me.” It was a possibility that unsettled Nexus, and he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He could not understand - even with his fixation on Aspen being what it was - _why_ Niji would bother following. If the intent was to drag her right back to the palace...the uproar would be unlike anything Nexus had experienced before, even thinking back over his 11 years as regent. Even Judge would not be foolish enough to order one of the boys to pull a stunt like that, with how deeply disliked and distrusted Germa was in Hoarfrost.

 _“Unless he’s there to spy on her,”_ Nexus considered, putting a pen to his mouth and chewing absently on the end. If he remembered correctly, when the planned stealth gene hadn’t shown up in the original sibling planned...Niji had been hastily modified further to make the necessary accommodations, against Nexus’s advice. Of course, this was all assuming that Niji had followed her in the first place. There was no proof of it. 

Reiju looked up from the report she had been reading, and Nexus was instantly concerned to see worry in her features, her brow furrowed as she bit her lip. “What is ‘pathway deficiency syndrome?’”

The phrase was unfamiliar to Nexus, and he raised an eyebrow. “What...could you give me the context, please?” He took his glasses off, setting them on the desktop as he preemptively massaged his temples. The name alone told him it wouldn’t be good - surely it wasn’t something he’d missed. Maybe he hadn’t gone over every report with a fine tooth comb, but he had definitely skimmed for important notes and updates.

Clearing her throat, Reiju held up the report and read the section aloud. “It says, ‘incomplete or deficient dosing of treatment samples have been associated with mood instability, irregular behavior, and significant irritability. Violent behavior theorized as possible in human patients but cannot be confirmed at this juncture.’”

The more Reiju read, the more Nexus could feel himself turning green. Nothing about that sounded good - and it matched something he had witnessed with his own eyes. He couldn’t recall having come across it in any of his other reports. He leaned over the desk, stretching his arm towards Reiju over the other stacks. “Can I see that? What was the date on this report?”

“October 9th.”

That would’ve been precisely around when Nexus had first been informed of Germa’s upcoming visit. No _wonder_ he didn’t recognize the phrase - he didn’t remember a damn thing from that period of time. Once he’d learned of the visit, preparing for it had dominated nearly every waking moment of his life. Nexus didn’t have the faintest idea how big of an issue he had allowed to slip between the cracks, in his distraction. What folly.

Reiju, seeing Nexus’s violent color change, looked even more concerned. “I wondered if Ichiji wasn’t acting worse than usual…”

Nexus felt absolutely sick to his stomach. He had not, in any way, helped either his eldest nephew or Aspen as he had set out to do - he had made things so much worse. Sinking in his chair, he clutched at either side of his head, tugging on his hair and ripping small sections of it out. He had thought Ichiji not getting the proper dosage would be no worse than his treatment being delayed - this was blindsiding. “I…” He struggled to put his fury with himself into words for Reiju. “I…”

“This isn’t the time to wallow,” Reiju interrupted him sharply, his face stern. “This needs to be fixed, and before Ichiji and Aspen see each other again.”

Reiju was right, of course. Nexus thought hard, trying to push his anger down for another time. If there was an anticipated side effect, then surely a method of managing that had been developed, had it not? Unfortunately, Nexus couldn’t remember approving any sort of side research with that aim. “Corte said there wouldn’t be enough of the treatment to get him up to speed with Niji and Yonji for months,” Nexus recalled, musing to himself. “I wonder if, maybe, we have at least enough to treat the pathway deficiency. If that’s indeed the issue.” It would set them back several more months, using another unfinished, underdeveloped sample to fix the problem he had caused, not to mention it was a long shot.

“Can you call her and ask?” Reiju pressed, her voice all urgency. Even with how she insisted she loathed her brothers, Nexus could see she was worried and wanted to try and help Ichiji. “There has to be something we can do.”

Nexus pulled open his desk drawer and fished out the portable transponder he’d hid in there earlier - when banging on the door didn’t pan out, Judge had taken to calling him incessantly. Even if he did not have high hopes, it would be worth it to at least _ask_. This was his second major mistake in as many months - it was his responsibility to fix it in whatever way he could.

“Good afternoon, Nexus!” Corte answered quickly, her voice friendly and upbeat. “If you’re calling to check on the upcoming reports -”

“This is regarding a past report.” Nexus quickly jumped in before she could continue.

“Ah! Did you finally catch my old note about pathway deficiency syndrome?” Corte’s upbeat tone did not change. 

Both Nexus and Reiju opened their mouths in shock. “You _knew?_ ” Nexus barely held it together in his response, sputtering as his face went hot. “You never mentioned this to me in person _why?”_

Corte’s tone turned exasperated. “I put it in multiple reports back at the end of October, sir. Every time I attempted to touch base with you in person over the developments at the lab, I could tell you were distracted and not keen to meet with me.”

Nexus could not rebut that, and it burned him up inside. “Ah.” He could feel Reiju giving him an immensely disappointed look as he turned his eyes towards the ceiling. “Right.”

“You’re calling about the red-haired prince?” Corte guessed, his voice going serious and business-like. “He _is_ showing a suite of symptoms…”

“Is there anything I can do?” Nexus could hear the desperation in his voice, and the dread and anxiety prickling at every pore on his body. There was no telling what damage had already been done. His thoughts flickered briefly to Aspen - so unhappy as of late, evasive, and so very tired all the time. She’d all but fled the palace. Had it been solely to get away from Ichiji? Nexus felt sick with himself. _“It isn’t like you haven’t known what they’ve been getting up to,”_ he scolded himself. _“You chose to let her handle it rather than intervene. She deserved better than that from you.”_

Another voice popped up in Nexus’s head, one that he could still hear clearly even a decade after its owner had passed. _“The kingdom comes second. Inter-kingdom relations can come third. Your priority is to protect my little girl, first and foremost. Do you understand me?”_ Nexus couldn’t bear thinking he had failed in such a spectacular manner. 

Cort hesitated. “Maybe. We have...a small sample of the previous incomplete treatment that might be able to help. Only if properly administered this time. We _cannot_ waste this again, or risk having one of the other princes take the sample. I...took the liberty of preparing it, once I noticed he was beginning to show symptoms.”

Nexus made up his mind right then and there to nominate Corte for head of the Royal Research facility when Dr. Aster finally decided to step down. He sagged in his chair, relief mingling with desperation that lingered. This time, the sample had to be administered just right - no leaving anything up to chance. “Thank you, Corte. Thank you.”

“Although…” Corte’s voice suddenly turned hesitant, and Nexus felt his stomach contract painfully. “It might be better to withhold treatment from the prince. We have no way of knowing entirely how he will respond to another sample administered so soon after the incomplete dose - that was something we were unable to test. I told you this.”

“I understand,” Nexus’s voice was straining, and he could feel his heart starting to beat at an uneven pace. He could not let things remain as they were - he _couldn’t_. “But seeing as it is all my mistake in the first place, I feel I can’t just let Prince Ichiji -”

“The _smart_ thing to do,” Corte continued, steamrolling right over him. “Would be to wait until the _complete_ sample is ready for him in two months. In the meantime, he needs to be separated from her royal highness to reduce the risk he’ll do her any more harm than he already has.”

The phrase ‘ _any more harm than he already has’_ stabbed at Nexus’s chest like a dagger, and his breath caught in his throat. “I can’t, I -” He could feel himself beginning to become frantic, desperate. Nexus couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt _quite_ so keyed-up. Corte was right, and that was the correct thing to do - don’t screw with Ichiji’s brain any more than they already had, until the correct treatment could be provided for him _as intended_. But Nexus couldn’t fathom the idea of leaving things as they were, and having to explain to Judge why Ichiji couldn’t be left alone with his future wife. Why he was not to be trusted with Aspen. Nexus could not leave it all as it was, when it was his fault it had turned such a way in the first place. 

“Corte. Please.” There was one last card he had to play, and he knew it was a gamble. “He’s my nephew. _Please.”_

Reiju’s eyes went round and wide with shock at the word ‘nephew,’ and she dropped the report she’d been holding as her hands clapped to her mouth. Nexus had not confirmed his familial ties to the Vinsmoke family to anyone outside of Wintergreen. 

There was no response from Corte, but Nexus could hear her breathing. Almost immediately after he’d said it, he knew it had been a bad call. “Corte -”

“Your _nephew?”_ On the other end, Corte exploded in a way Nexus had never experienced before. The transponder shook in the palm of his hand with her shouting. “They’re your _nephews?_ You’re related to the Vinsmokes of Germa?”

It was rapidly becoming uglier than Nexus had considered it would go. Nexus, flustered, stood up out of his chair and began pacing, hitting his hip against the desk and knocking over stacks of reports and he began to nervously pace his office. “Corte, I -”

“You’re - I’m - I’m flabbergasted at your absolute _nerve_!” Compounding Nexus’s anxiety and full-body tension, she began screaming even louder. “I defended you to _so many_ people, everyone who wanted to blame _you_ for this damned marriage arrangement with Germa - and you’ve played me for a fool this _entire time_ . You played _everyone_ for a fool.”

Nexus stopped by the window, stopping in place and feeling a hot bubble of rage underneath his panic. _Again_ , he was being blamed for Aspen and Ichiji’s match. He was to blame for many, many terrible things, that was true, but the marriage arrangement was not one of them. That had been the Council’s doing and was still the Council’s doing 11 years after the fact, linking Hoarfrost with one of its oldest, most hated enemies. It had haunted his entire period as regent - and that without anyone knowing of his connection to Germa. “I had no hand in Aspen and Ichiji’s arrangement!” Nexus heard himself snarling back in a voice he barely recognized as his own. He had not been so angry, so affronted, in years. That was a bad sign. 

“Oh _sure_ ,” Corte fired back, her voice simmering with contempt. Reiju was still watching as Nexus paced. He could feel her eyes watching him, ready to intervene. Though Nexus wasn’t sure what exactly she would need to intervene for. “Germa’s been trying to slither back into Hoarfrost for hundreds of years with no success, but you’re regent for less than a month and suddenly Princess Aspen is signed away to Prince Ichiji. Your nephew. How _dare_ you.”

Nexus felt his grip tighten on the transponder as it buckled in his palm. It was beginning to make cracking and popping noises. “Corte -” He started, in the most controlled voice he could manage, still pulsating with rage. “I -”

“You want the treatment? You may have it. I’ll leave it sitting out where you can find it once I’ve cleared my belongings out of the lab. I quit.”

For a moment, Nexus calmly walked back to his desk as he stared at the transponder in his hand. The panic, rage, and desperation that had just been surging through his veins was replaced with an eerie calm - a response Nexus had not felt in himself in years. And then the transponder was flying across the room, back to where Nexus had been standing moments before by the window, shattering into millions of pieces upon impact. He watched it fall impassively, noting that it had fragmented so badly, you could not tell what it had been before. 

He blinked, and then Reiju was there, grabbing the arm that had been holding the transponder. “You need to calm down.”

“I am calm.” He still was, oddly enough. Breaking the transponder had been almost cathartic, in a way. Reiju, not looking in any way convinced, let go of his arm and sat back down in her chair, slowly taking bites of her lunch. Nexus stretched in his chair, pushing his legs out under the desk and reaching high for the ceiling with his arms as he took deep breaths. “If Corte is going to leave the treatment in the lab, I’ll go get it this evening.”

“She quit,” Reiju gently reminded him, watching him carefully for his reaction.

“I know.” That was a body blow he knew he’d panic over later. She’d quit and he had no control over who she would talk to next. She’d quit and he had no replacement for her in the research lab. “I’m going to give her space. That was a very big thing I blindsided her with.”

Corte had lost it, and that was with her having next to no interaction with Germa at all, in her day to day capacity. _“Aspen will be worse,”_ a tiny voice in his head pointed out. _“Far worse.”_

“Do you think it’ll help Ichiji?” Reiju did not, to Nexus’s relief, bring up the issue he knew they were both pondering at that moment. 

“Well...there isn’t any other option.” Thinking about the treatment, and Corte no longer being at the lab to supervise, made Nexus’s eye twitch. He took off his glasses, and rubbed at his eyes. “I’m just...going to let her clear out and…”

Reiju set the reports that had been on her lap back on the desk, and stood up slowly. “I’ll go and get it. I’m assuming it’ll be where I can find it.”

Nexus did not bother to object. Her eyes were closed, chin held high, mouth twisted unhappily. He knew that look well and he knew where it came from - arguing was pointless. “That’s fine, Reiju. I trust you’ll bring it right back here?”

“I will.” Reiju stopped at the door, her hand on the knob, and looked back over at Nexus with a curious expression. It was neither approval nor disapproval, and he could see questioning in her eyes. “Why did you tell her the truth? After all this time? Considering how it could jeopardize your position?”

The real, full answer was more than Nexus felt he could unload on his niece, who had more than her own issues to deal with. He stared up at the ceiling again as he pulled a cigarette and his lighter from his pocket, lighting it up and absently sucking on it. It had been much easier to lie and distance himself from his family when they were far away and out of sight. There was nothing anyone had to question. Living with them again was making the lie harder and harder to maintain.

Now fully-grown, his nephews had too much in common with him, whether they recognized it or not. Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji had all inherited so many of his physical features, facial expressions, and tics. The undeniable shared resemblance unnerved even Wintergreen, who had quietly confided in Nexus about how Ichiji in particular looked like a younger version of him. If it had been only her noticing the similarities, Nexus would not have lost any sleep over it. But she was far from it.

To his horror, staff were beginning to notice something was not quite right - even if they weren’t sure what. Judge’s thinly-veiled threat to Nexus after the formal introductions had been done - that he was to keep his goddamn mouth shut about his connection to the Vinsmoke family - didn’t stop the staff from noticing odd similarities in the visiting princes and their former regent of eleven years. To boot, Nexus and Judge’s uncommonly tense relationship had been noticed by the Council, who had all seemed to guess that there was shared history there, even if they did not know what. Even Priya and Anja had started treating him with growing suspicion, as were Mace and Dagger. Only Aspen had seemed to notice nothing, on the rare occasion he saw her alone, glancing nervously over her shoulder for one of his nephews.

For over a decade, Nexus had dreaded the day it would all collapse and bury him beneath his ruined facade. It seemed to all finally be catching up with him.

Exhausted, he exhaled a smoke ring at the ceiling, and gave Reiju a thin smile. “I’m becoming too tired to lie.”

******************

Nexus spent several more hours alone after Reiju left, with no further knocks at his door, before finally opting to try and sneak out. Wintergreen had not been to see him, and Reiju had not returned from the research facility. His first plan had been to try calling either of them - dashed when he glanced over at the broken pieces of his transponder scattered in front of the window. That had been so short-sighted and stupid. He _hated_ when he backslid into being short-sighted and stupid. _“I need to watch myself,”_ he thought, cracking open his office door and slipping into the hallway, closing the door as silently as he could. His actions that afternoon had given him a glimpse back at the kind of man he’d been before coming to Hoarfrost - and that man was dead.

Out in the hall, it seemed darker than usual, even with the dazzling Yule decorations that adorned the walls in sparkling gold and silver. Strings of colored lights framed every window as far as he could see, but their small glow seemed easily absorbed by darkness. Nexus was completely alone, as he had hoped for, but he could feel the vibration of a multitude of sounds all around him. It was pleasant, and reminded him of how the palace felt when they had the full staff on hand, and guests visiting for the holidays - _wanted_ guests, anyway. Smiling to himself, Nexus made his way down the hall whistling tunelessly, planning to slip quickly and quietly through the hub back to his apartment. He was almost to the end of the hall when someone stepped in front of him from the shadows.

“Can I help you?” The words spilled from his lips out of habit, before Nexus could recover from being startled. He stared at the person in front of him as his brain stalled, trying to absorb what he was seeing. In front of him, the stranger was dressed in a floor-length black robe, concealing their body fully, their head covered with a large, disturbingly realistic crow’s head, the top of which was slightly higher than Nexus’s own. Even as he finished his automatic question, Nexus could feel all the blood rushing out of his lungs, his blood pressure skyrocketing as he took several steps back. _“What is this?”_

Unspeaking, the crow head rotated to face him, the glittering lights reflecting off of blank, unseeing eyes. Nexus stared, unable to move aside from his jaw having dropped open, as the being stepped closer, backing him hard into the wall. There was a sudden glint of light in their hand, drawing Nexus’s eye at the last possible second. He watched as a large, curved blade was pulled into the air, and then swung down hard towards his chest, all as a wave of calmness - much as he’d felt earlier - washed over him. _“Twice in one day?”_ Nexus thought, suddenly impassive, almost impatiently waiting for the blade to connect. _“That’s not good.”_

He did not move away. He did not try to block it.

There was a loud ripping sound as the blade tore into his chest, easily shredding his black suit jacket and the blue pinstripe shirt beneath. Both fabrics tattered at the slightest contact with the blade, which continued to catch the holiday lights in an ominous way. It grazed his pocket, spilling its contents onto the carpeted floor of the hall. His cigarettes bounced harmlessly off his shoe, landing just off to the side, but his lighter fell with an audible thud directly between him and his assailant. The hallway air was cold against his bare chest. 

“A sacrifice for the Silver Queen.” The voice was muffled, but clearly male. Nexus choked back a laugh - he was so stupid. Of course it was just an elaborate headpiece. His mouth slowly pulled into a wide, calm smile, which the stranger did not seem to appreciate. “Better than you deserve, traitor.”

“Traitor?” Moron, maybe. Liar. Fool. Monster. Nexus could think of countless horrible ways to describe himself - he’d had a lifetime to think about it. His smile lessened somewhat. “Oh, you overheard that conversation earlier. The thing with me and the Vinsmokes. That’s fair.”

The crow’s head inclined downwards, and its glossy feathers were bright in the darkness as he looked down at Nexus’s exposed chest. Where the blade had struck, there was only the smallest line of thin, red skin, slightly raised as it ran from his collar over his ribs. “I -” The shock and horror in their voice brought Nexus’s smile back to full form. “How is this possible?”

Nexus was surprised as well, and he lifted a hand to his chest to feel the raised line. It was barely the thinnest scratch, but it was proof enough that the ‘iron skin’ modification eventually did weaken with age. That was a theory he’d postulated to Judge and the rest of Germa’s scientists almost 30 years earlier. Nexus had known for years he could get hurt from falls, could bang his limbs, could sustain internal injuries - but his skin had been nigh impenetrable. Still completely calm, he looked back at the crow being. “I guess you didn’t stab me hard enough.”

“Is this all a big joke to you, traitor?”

“It isn’t very funny, no,” Nexus admitted. In his chest, he could feel his heart skip every other beat, and he wasn’t entirely sure when the last time he’d blinked was. Even still, the dangerous calm blanketed him. “You need to leave.”

“Leave?” The stranger was furious, and still confused at Nexus’s glaring lack of mortal injuries. He grabbed Nexus’s shoulder with his other hand, and pressed the back of the blade against his throat. The cold steel made it hard to swallow. “You sit at the right hand of our Silver Queen, and rather than lead her to the fullest glory, you’ve made her a whore to the heir of Germa! We will _not_ leave.”

 _That_ wasn’t fair. “Aspen and Ichiji’s arrangement was not my -” Nexus started, for the second time that day.

“Be _quiet!”_ Seething with fury, the stranger stomped down, crushing the silvery lighter that had been a gift from Wintergreen, the lighter he was rarely ever without. There was a sudden pop, and Nexus looked down to see the dark carpet grow even darker as the lighter fluid burst out and puddled. 

The explosion of rage that surged through Nexus was white-hot and blinding. Without any input from his brain, a hand shot out and seized the stranger tightly around the throat that was just out of sight under the crow head. He gave a light pulse against their throat, and it forced out a bark-like gag. Nexus dragged them close, feeling their silken robe against his bare skin as the beak of the crow head was forced against the wall with a bang. He ignored their frantic attempts to stab at him, slashing ineffectually at his own throat and tearing his clothes. “That was a gift from _my wife.”_

The hacking, gurgling noises continued, as did the stabbing and ripping of his clothes. Beginning to grow irritated, Nexus ripped off the crow head, revealing one of the members of the palace string quartet - someone he vaguely recalled speaking to at a past dinner. He squeezed tighter, and could feel knobbly neck vertebrae shifting and popping against his grip. It was a sensation he’d almost forgotten, now real and vivid once more. An _intense_ rush.

“I’m going to give you one more chance to leave.” Nexus’s voice was calm and bitterly cold even as he slowly eased his grip on their neck. “Do not make me regret this.”

He loosened his hand fully without letting go. The quartet member spit in his face.

Nexus let out a long, exasperated sigh before snapping their neck in his hand. When he let go, the body hit the floor with a heavy sound, landing on top of the broken lighter pieces. The head tilted at an unnatural angle with no unfractured neck bones to support it, and Nexus gave it a small kick to force it into a more pleasing position. It lolled, pulling at the neck skin, and Nexus watched bloody saliva trickling out of its mouth and down its lips. 

And then the calm was gone, leaving Nexus terrified, soaked in sweat with his shoulders heaving and rocking. What had he done? Why did he do it? In a fit of panic, he dropped to his knees and turned the man onto his back, feeling in his wrist for a pulse - even a faint whisper of a pulse - that Nexus knew he would not find. Failing that, he threw himself palms-first against the man’s chest, pressing hard as he began chest compressions, ignoring the man’s broken and twisted neck. He heaved hard into his motions, his tattered clothes shaking against him, the man’s ribs bowing and buckling. Nexus was still pumping when the hall floor shook with heavy footsteps behind him.

“You’re wasting your time.”

“Shut up,” Nexus snarled without stopping or turning around. Of course it was Judge, lording over him like he always had, irritatingly oblivious. The man was a blight. Nexus pumped even harder, and more blood oozed out of the corners of the mouth, giving the man a gruesome, clown-like appearance.

“I saw the whole thing.” Sickeningly still to Nexus, there was almost admiration and pride in Judge’s voice. “I suppose it was foolish of me to think that part of you was gone forever.”

Nexus moved harder in response, and felt a rib crack against his hands. And then another. And another. More fluid seeped out of the mouth, soaking into the carpet and shining in the cheerful Yule lights. 

“Ichiji is a lot like you - the real you. It’s a relief.” Judge spoke to Nexus as though there wasn’t a body sprawled out in the hall, as if they were sitting down to dinner together the way they once had. “You’ve seen how hot-headed the other two are. It’s a balance. Much like how you and I used to -”

 _“Shut up!”_ Nexus was on his feet, spun around to face Judge, who stared down at him with no reaction whatsoever, eyes peering out from his helmet. 

“There were more of them.” Judge blinked slowly. “Reiju and Ichiji are handling it.”

For a moment, as he tried hard to calm down again, Nexus wondered why nobody had thought to call him and alert him. Then he remembered the shattered transponder. “How?”

“Broken wall in the kitchen.” Judge turned away, walking towards the hub, where Nexus had been bound before everything had spiraled out of control. Dazed, heart still racing, Nexus shambled behind him. He noticed Judge slowing his steps until they were walking side by side, but Nexus said nothing.

“How do we know?” Nexus’s brain felt sluggish, like he had been drinking. Those damned cultists that Gogo had endlessly harassed him about. They were _in_ the palace. Nexus did not know what to do. 

“Ichiji got the information out of a few of them.”

Nexus did not ask how.

“They told us what they’re after...or, rather, Ichiji forced them to tell him what they’re after.” Judge stopped short at the archway of the hub. From where they stood, Nexus could smell smoke, and he noticed stains on the walls of a sickly pink, poisonous residue. All handiwork he was very familiar with. Nexus thought back to the vibrations from all the sounds he’d heard earlier, and how happy they had made him. It made him sick. “I’m assuming you were aware.”

“I am.” Nexus could picture Gogo’s face, creased with worry, floating up in his head.

“This kingdom lacks the means to stomp them out.”

“It does.” What if Aspen had been in the palace, and not hours away, safely in Neigebelle? What if she had been ambushed? Aspen lacked an exoskeleton. Nexus looked down at his torn clothes to the thin, red line marring his chest. _“We could have lost everything.”_

“Then…” Judge turned back to the hub again, gesturing for Nexus to follow. There was a look in his eyes that Nexus knew well, and did not like. “I think it’s time you came back into the fold...brother.”


	30. SOFI VII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- I've been so slow lately  
> \- No smut no violence this chapter is a cool-down and it's not very long

Sofi wasn’t precisely sure how she’d ended up wandering around in Neigebelle alone, still good and drunk from her earlier drink. She remembered things going sideways with Aspen, putting back on her coat and shoes, but then everything was more or less a blur. Before she realized it, she was stumbling around town, zoning out as the afternoon slid into dusk. The large crowds of tourists in the heart of Neigebelle had doubled for the night scene, and Sofi’s drunken stumbling fit right in with the people surrounding her. In the air, she could smell fried food, baked goods, and sizzling meat - but all she could think about was getting another drink.

“There was some kind of tavern around here..” Sofi mused under her breath, looking around as she checked the alleyways branching off the main stretch. All the tourist traps were on the main street, but the real gems were tucked away - everyone knew that. The tavern in question had been one she had visited with Aspen and Nexus years and years earlier, and Sofi didn’t even know if it was still there. Looking for the small hole in the wall was even harder with just how drunk she was. Every storefront looked the same through the hustling crowds, Yule decorations, and on and off snow flurries. “Would help if I could even remember what it’s called.”

Finally, after weaving back and forth from alley to alley, Sofi spotted a shabby-looking tavern with clumsy Yule decorations haphazardly slapped up in the window. Inside, she could see a bar, and a decently-sized group of locals milling around. Brightening up instantly, Sofi hustled in through the front door, ducking past a group of large men standing around and drinking from huge tankards. She dropped into the first empty seat at the bar, propping herself up with her elbows and breathing deep. The booze had thrown off her balance, and she wobbled sideways on her stool, gripping hard to the edge of the dingy wooden bar to keep from tumbling to the dirty tiled floor.

“Duchess.” Sofi looked up to see the bartender greet her with a small curtsy. Squinting, Sofi tried to make out a face, but her blurred vision concealed all of the bartender’s facial features. From her high voice, at least Sofi could tell she was female...maybe. “Good evening. So good to see you back in Neigebelle. Rumor has it her imperial highness has returned as well, after so many years away.”

 _That_ had certainly spread quickly. Sofi hadn’t thought it would be big news. The Council had always told Aspen that it was important to the kingdom that she visit Neigebelle, as was tradition, according to them. She was surprised that they hadn’t made it all up. “Oh. Haha. Yeah, yeah she is.” Sofi chuckled nervously, pulling her coat sleeve over her hand and using it to slyly cover her mouth. The last thing she wanted was for the bartender to realize how drunk she already was, and throw her out. There was always a chance she could skirt by using her noble position, but better not to risk it. “Princess Aspen is pretty tired. She’s back up at the Grand Chateau, relaxing. It’s been a hectic couple of weeks.”

The man at the bar next to Sofi, a heavily-bearded man throwing back a rainbow of beer bottles, raised his drink high to the ceiling. “To Princess Aspen!” He roared drunkenly. “The last of the Frostbanes! Long may she reign!”

Many of the patrons joined in, loudly toasting to Aspen as they raised a smorgasbord of drinks. There was some cheering and clapping, and Sofi chuckled nervously as she stared down at the bar surface. The bartender disappeared and reappeared, setting down a frothy pink milkshake in front of her. Its rim was dipped in white chocolate, and Sofi could make out the shapes of sprinkles and star candies pressed all around. The top was mounded with heavy whipped cream in the lightest possible shade of strawberry, with a striped paper straw rising from its center. One sip, and it was like a punch of milky booze. “Is it to your liking, Duchess?” Sofi heard the bartender ask as her head began to spin again. “Courtesy of the owner, your grace. Said they remember your favorite from when you were small - we just aged it up appropriately. It is, of course, on the house.”

Sofi took a deeper sip, closing her eyes to stop from feeling like her stool was rocking beneath her. “Thank you.” It was better than she remembered, and it gave her a warm feeling that muted her thoughts and worries from earlier.

“How has the palace been, your grace, with our...royal visitors?” The bartender’s voice was tense but friendly, and she gripped her fingers tight on the other side of the bar. Sofi could see she had all kinds of rings on long, thin fingers. There were diamonds, emeralds, and even a neat ring that had the design of interlocking feathers. “It must be going well, seeing as her royal highness intends to...host the Vinsmoke family of Germa in Neigebelle for the Yule holidays.”

The rowdiness of the bar patrons seemed to muffle into silence at the bartender’s remark, and Sofi could feel the stares of many different people on her back. _“Sure, coming to Neigebelle is a big deal for the Frostbanes, but it’s not like it’s...sacred,”_ Sofi thought, both nervous and annoyed as she sipped at her drink. “Oh, uh, yeah, it’s been going -”

Before she could finish, another patron shouted from the back of the tavern. “Spending Yule with the Frostbane princess is a high honor those warmongering bastards are unworthy of!” His sentiment was followed by many murmurs of agreement and shouts of ‘that’s right!’ - and Sofi couldn’t help but feel the same as she nodded along at the bar.

“Don’t interrupt the duchess when she speaks,” the bartender rebuked the unseen patron sharply. “She is worthy of greater respect than that...regardless of how strongly we feel about what she has to say.”

“My apologies, Duchess Sofiya,” the voice called again, sheepishly addressing Sofi by her full first name. The only person who ever called her Sofiya was her mother, and only when she was in trouble. 

Sofi could feel her face blushing pink; usually, it was Aspen who was the recipient of such deference, not her. “You don’t have to apologize to me, it’s fine.” Sofi took another long drink of her shake, fiddling with the cardigan sleeves that had begun to poke out of her coat. She didn’t remember the tavern being _quite_ like this when she’d visited last - but that had been quite some time ago. _“Maybe I was too young to realize.”_

The bartender spoke again, her voice still forcibly cheerful. “So the visit is going well?”

“Oh yeah, it’s...it’s going great,” Sofi lied, thinking briefly of how little she had seen of Aspen since Ichiji had sunk his teeth into her. “Princess Aspen and Prince Ichiji are...really good together. Yeah. He’s, uh, on the quiet side like her. Really nice couple.”

“Are they?” The bartender’s voice got higher, and Sofi could tell she was not exactly thrilled. It was all a lie, of course, Sofi knew that - but these strangers didn’t need to know. She sipped contentedly at her milkshake as she watched the bartender’s sparkling fingers drumming on the bar surface. “What wonderful news. Have they gotten quite close already?”

Sofi resisted the urge to sigh loudly and roll her eyes. She had _not_ come all the way to Neigebelle to talk about Aspen and Ichiji together. “Definitely,” Sofi continued to lie, nodding enthusiastically as scooped whipped cream off the top of her shake with her fingers. It was sweet and thick, just the perfect blend of vanilla and strawberry. She could see the door out of the corner of her eye, just past a handful of guests. It would be easy to sneak back out as easily as she’d snuck back in. “It’s so nice to see, really, he, uh, treats her so well. Ichiji is, uh...very polite, very gentlemanly. I, you know, heard that Aspen was speechless when he ‘officially’ asked her to marry him…” That was what _Ichiji_ had told everyone - Sofi had never verified it with Aspen.

Unfortunately, the rest of the tavern guests weren’t nearly as controlled as the bartender, and Sofi felt a minor uproar ripple through the patrons at her words. There were a few gasps, and the space around her plunged into a tense silence. If Sofi hadn’t been sure whether or not she’d brought up the wrong thing before, she was definitely sure now. The only noises were the wind just outside, gusting heavily, and the dull hum of the ceiling lights. _“Good one, moron. I’m sure they wanted to be reminded of that.”_

“Princess Aspen...accepted a marriage proposal from that warmongering piece of trash?” The bearded man beside Sofi slammed his latest beer so hard into the bar, she heard a loud crack of glass breaking. His voice was thick with confusion and anger. All around her, Sofi could hear others mumbling amongst each other, whispering, barely hiding their contempt.

That was odd. Sofi cocked her head to the side as she looked at the man beside her, still unable to make out any faces in her tipsy haze. “What? I mean, _yeah_.” Why was it so surprising? “But she signed the actual agreement years ago...so I take it the proposal was just a formality on Ichiji’s part…”

“Papers a child is tricked into signing,” the bartender answered, a peculiar edge to her voice that Sofi didn’t like. “Is quite different from a willingly accepted marriage proposal. Even if the end result is the same.”

Still, that didn’t sound right. Sofi rolled her eyes for real that time. “But this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Didn’t you all read about it in the paper?” Even as she said it, Sofi realized she could not recall having seen news of the engagement in the paper herself. In the last several weeks, she read the newspaper from front to back, drinking in all the news she could get. Updates on the situation with the Servants of the Silver Queen. Lots of stories about the infamous Straw Hat Pirates - all of which she’d clipped at Musette’s request. She read every section, every column - even the godawful personals. And Sofi had not seen a single mention of Aspen and Ichiji’s engagement. _“Looks like you really stepped in this one, jackass.”_

As the tavern grew more and more angry around her, Sofi slowly got to her feet, feeling the full effects of the boozy shake smacking her as her feet touched the ground. “Nevermind, ah, that last bit.” Sofi held onto the edge of the bar as she tried to steady herself, her stomach twisting into all kinds of shapes inside her. The people who’d been blocking the door had moved, and she had a straight shot out. “Thank you for the milkshake.”

Before anyone could say anything, Sofi bolted for the door, careening into people as the world tilted beneath her. She heard at least two drinks being knocked to the floor, along with the shattering of glass and yelling. Sofi slammed her shoulder into the door, forcing it open as she fell into the outside world once more, the cold air stinging her face and shocking her lungs. The momentum carried her into the street, past surprised tourists and directly into someone who had been passing by. They both slammed hard into the cobblestone, and Sofi saw stars. Barely taking a moment to collect herself or catch her breath, Sofi jumped back to her feet and took off, leaving her victim on the ground.

“I’m sorry!” Sofi called over her shoulder as the other person struggled to get back up. From the looks of it, it was a kid - _maybe_ 12 or 13 tops. Their scarf had been whipped up around their head, and it was taking them a bit to get up, even with the help of tourists who had stopped to assist. Sofi felt bad leaving them to fend for themselves as she zigzagged through throngs of tourists and families stopping to ooh and ahh at the Yule decorations. During her time in the tavern, the sun had gone down, and Neigebelle was now fully illuminated by street lamps and sparkling holiday decorations in every storefront.

Unfortunately, in shape she was not, and it wasn’t long before it felt like her legs were filled with wet sand, pulling her down to the ground. Sofi was slowing down rapidly and people were stepping around her, leaving her bent double in the middle of the road, hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. Tired, Sofi looked around for a place to get her bearings straight, somewhere away from prying eyes. “Come _on_ …” She grumbled, looking at packed shop after packed shop, lively restaurant after lively restaurant. Had Neigebelle always been so hideously choked with tourists?

“Hey!” Sofi turned around, and through the crowd behind her, she could see the kid she’d knocked over running in her direction. She could see the kid’s tights, ripped at the knees from being knocked over, her pink coat open and her scarf trailing behind her as she ran. She still couldn’t make out a face. “Get back here!”

Groaning, Sofi shoved past a small family taking photos in front of a decorated Yule tree and dove into the closest shop. A heavy gust of wind blew the door shut right on her heels, and Sofi hunched behind a revolving metal rack of postcards. After a minute or so, the kid ran right by the storefront window, blue scarf blowing behind her, curls bouncing. She passed by the store without noticing Sofi at all. Relieved, Sofi let out a heavy sigh, and she stepped out from behind the postcards.

“May I _help_ you?” A voice from behind made Sofi jump, and she spun around to find that it belonged to a young man - one whose face Sofi still couldn’t make out. He was dressed in a white button-up shirt and tweed pants, and his voice sounded exhausted. Sofi’s eyes fell onto the name tag pinned over his breast pocket.

“Page?” Sofi glanced around the small shop she had chosen as her hideaway. It was a narrow space, crammed from floor to ceiling with mismatched shelves loaded with books. The damp, musty smell was similar to Aspen’s own collection in her bedroom. Grinning, she turned back to the guy. The illumination was scant, seeming to come from dim lamps set in the odd gapa in the books. “You work in a bookstore and your name is _Page?”_

“Get what you came here for and get out.” Judging by his tone, Sofi could imagine a look of displeasure on a nondescript face, and Page turned to disappear between a row of shelves. 

Though still very tipsy, Sofi was taken aback by his rude tone. “Hey now,” Sofi stumbled over her planned rebuke as she followed him past disorganized shelves that were just as loaded with dust and candle wax as they were books. She caught spines bearing titles of many different languages, along with maps, picture books, and cookbooks. “I’m the young duchess of Åker, Sofiya Sanofi, and you cannot talk to me like that.”

“I don’t care if you’re a Celestial Dragon, I’ll speak to you however I please.” Around a corner was a cluttered counter space with a register, several additional stacks of books, and a jar of oversized lollipops. Page slipped behind the counter, dropping into a chair Sofi could not see and kicking his feet up. He picked up a magazine with scantily-clad, large-breasted women on the cover, and promptly hid his face behind it.

Sofi opened her mouth to argue again when one stack of books at the very edge of the counter caught her eye. They were old, leatherbound, and the letters on their spines had long since faded and peeled off. All the same, Sofi knew that style of book anywhere, and she made a beeline for them. Her eyes went wide as the cover of the top book came into sight - it was a cover she knew well.

Page eyed her suspiciously over the top of his magazine. “Those aren’t for sale. Display only.”

“And why’s that?” As carefully as she could, Sofi picked up the top book and began to gently flip through the pages. It was unmistakably the _Old Arts_ book, just like the one Sofi had in her bag back at the Chateau. “Hmm...this one doesn’t have any pictures like mine does…” It made sense, the more Sofi thought about it - all the illustrations in her book had appeared to be hand-inked.

Sighing irritably, Page shook his head as he turned the page in his magazine. “God, are you obsessed with that weird witch shit too?”

“What do you mean?” Sofi resisted the urge to excitedly babble about _just how much_ she was into that ‘witch shit,’ and how she had even made it work. Trying to act casual, she closed the book and set it back on the stack before leaning over the counter at Page, who leaned further away in his chair. “Do you, uh, maybe know someone else like that?”

Page stiffly set his magazine down. Bit by bit, Sofi was able to make out more of his face, and it was just as boring and nondescript as she had originally assumed. “I can only tell you under one very specific condition.”

That felt spooky - Sofi liked it. “What is it?”

“You leave.”

“Deal.” Sofi had heard that one plenty of times, and she didn’t bat an eyelash. “Well?”

Snorting, Page rolled his eyes as he picked his magazine back up. “My mom. She works mornings but has this stupid little book club that meets in the back room to talk about this dumb shit. I think they get together like, every other night.”

Sofi slapped her hands down on the counter, startling Page, who dropped his magazine onto the floor. “I want in.” It had been a bit, but she still had not told Aspen or Musette about her incident with the crows at her bedroom window. She seriously doubted either of them would take her seriously. Musette would act like she believed, to humor her, and Aspen would brush her off. The thought of having a chance to talk to someone who believed in it was enticing. “Get me in.”

“Come ask my mom tomorrow. She works mornings.” Bending over to pick up his magazine, Page pointed a hand in the direction of the door. “Go.”

Sofi went. It had gotten quite a bit colder since Sofi had first left the Chateau, but the streets were packed with tourists enjoying the Neigebelle night scene. Every now and then, Sofi spotted a local or two, but nearly all of them passed by with their heads down, looking either unhappy or worried. She passed more restaurants and food stalls than she’d remembered from when she’d first ventured out, and the smells of the food were beginning to make her mouth water. _“Maybe Aspen will be feeling better by the time I get back,”_ Sofi thought to herself, perking up slightly as she passed a food stand with raclette. Ahead, she could see the looming Chateau beginning to come into sight. She had left to give Aspen some space after her mother of all meltdowns earlier that afternoon - surely she was better now.

“There’s being a crybaby,” Sofi reasoned under her breath as it began to snow, pulling her hands into her sleeves. “And then there’s whatever the hell happened this afternoon.” It did not make sense - not really. Sofi could understand Aspen being upset over those marriage papers, seeing as she’d stolen them and probably didn’t have a way to get another copy. Sofi could understand that. But Sofi had thought Aspen would at least act a _little_ better than she had. They were on a holiday vacation, and Ichiji had been left behind - why was Aspen still acting so bizarrely? “Maybe she just needs a full night of sleep,” Sofi assured herself. That had to be it.

As Sofi drew closer to the Chateau, she could see someone sitting at the base of the bear statue that had been erected for Aspen’s father. For the briefest moment, she thought it was Aspen herself, waiting for her - but whoever it was, they were taller than Aspen (though not by much). Then Sofi saw the scarf, the pink coat, the ripped tights, and realized it was the same kid she’d knocked down earlier. Shit.

“I _knew_ you’d come back eventually.” As Sofi had originally suspected, it was a young kid, right around preteen age. Her tone was accusatory, her face hidden under her hood as her breath puffed out in frozen clouds. “You can’t just knock me over and -”

“Listen, kid, I’m sorry.” Sofi quickly cut the kid off as she walked closer, looking past her and up at the Chateau. Its facade was dark aside from a few illuminated windows. Aspen had to be waiting for her, likely even worried. “I was in a big hurry and uh...yeah. Look, if it’s money you want or whatever -”

“Money?” This time, the kid cut her off, holding up mittened hands. “Sofi, are you drunk?”

So the kid knew her name. That wasn’t _so_ weird - Sofi was a young duchess after all, there were plenty of people who knew her name. But most of them didn’t have the balls to outright ask her if she was intoxicated. Putting on the most dignified voice she had, she spoke again. “It is _hardly_ the concern of a child whether -”

Cutting her off once more, the kid broke into a high-pitched, gleefully evil cackle that struck fear into Sofi with its familiarity. “You ARE drunk! You were drunk in PUBLIC! Mom is gonna _freak_ when she finds out!”

Sofi did not breathe. Sofi did not move. There was no way this was happening to her.

Still laughing, the kid pulled her hood off as she ran to Sofi, revealing the curls Sofi had seen when she’d ran past the window earlier. They were a touch darker than Sofi’s own, but just as wild and untamed. As she tackled Sofi in a huge, she beamed up at her. “Did you miss me??”

“Saki.” Sofi’s voice was barely audible as her little sister hugged the living daylights out of her, forcing the air from her lungs. It _had_ to just be a bad dream.

“We heard Aspen was in town, and we knew you’d be with her!” Saki Sanofi, the _other_ young duchess of Åker, gushed as she crushed her sister in an increasingly tight hug. “We got here a couple days ago so we could really enjoy the entire holiday, and -”

“‘We?’” Sofi asked, in the same weak tone as before. It was an awful nightmare, but she was _bound_ to wake up soon.

“Sofi! Me, Daven, and mom and dad!” Saki buried her face into Sofi’s chest, her curls springing in every direction as the snow sprinkled over them both. “This is great! We can finally all spend the holidays together!”

Sofi didn’t hear a single word that followed from her sister, and her head dropped backwards as her mouth opened in a silent scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Nobody can be cool in front of their parents


	31. MUSETTE VIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Kind of implied NSFW?  
> \- mention of NSFW past events

“We can’t do this anymore.”

“Are you going to say that after every time we fuck?” Four rounds in, and it finally seemed as though Yonji was getting tired as well. He had collapsed face-down next to Musette on the bed, angled in a way that let his head dangle off of the edge as he tried to catch his breath. Musette, still breathing quite hard herself, gently twisted her fingers through his hair against the nape of his neck, feeling how hot and sweaty he was at her touch. His green hair was darker from how heavily he was sweating, and it was damp on her fingertips. “You keep saying that and we keep -”

“Shh.” Musette blushed. She was as naked as he was, and she had grown stickier with every subsequent round. It had an oddly tacky feeling on her skin, mixed with sweat and the oppressive heat of the room. Still, she didn’t mind it - not really - it was a fair trade for feeling better than she had in _years._ Strangely, she found that she felt _safe_ too. Musette had not felt happy and safe for a very long time. “You’re not allowed to call me out like that.”

Yonji made a snorting noise.

Smiling to herself, Musette glanced over at the large, wide window. It was fully nighttime, and she could see the town lit up in the brightest holiday lights. The scene struck her as something she’d see on a postcard, all tranquil and glittering through the whirling snow. It was almost beautiful to her, and she had long since become indifferent to Hoarfrost’s constant snowfalls. “It’s dark out.”

He didn’t respond, still trying to catch his breath. Musette sat up a bit more, grabbing one of the few pillows that had not fallen off the bed and using it to cover her bare body as she brushed her long hair over a shoulder. Glancing around, she noticed there was no clock anywhere in their room, and Musette couldn’t even recall how long ago they’d come upstairs in the first place. She turned sideways, swinging her legs off the bed as she stretched her arms to the ceiling. Her back popped and cracked in a few spots, giving her tiny ripples of relief.

“Where are you going?”

“Gonna take a quick shower. Then I need to see what the food situation is like.” That honestly should’ve been the first thing any of them did, now that Musette was thinking about it. They should’ve assessed their food options, and to make sure there was toilet paper - things Musette knew the other three had not thought about at all. She set the pillow back onto the bed, and bent down to pick up the dress she had discarded.

Yonji, who had seemed to be falling asleep for a second there, perked up at her words. “I wanna come too.”

Musette paused, glancing down over her body. She had used his shirt multiple times to wipe herself clean, but she could still see dried remnants of their busy afternoon over her tits, belly, and legs. “You did. A bunch of times.”

“Oh, you have a sense of humor now?” He stood up, stretching like Musette had, pushing his arms up and out while groaning. Smirking to herself, Musette observed him out of the corner of her eye as she checked to see which door led to the bathroom. She knew how those strong arms felt wrapped around her now, and she couldn’t stop thinking about it. 

The first door was just a closet, but Musette found the bathroom behind the second door - fully stocked with towels, toiletries, and plenty of toilet paper. It wasn’t as large as Aspen’s personal bathroom at the palace, but it was decently sized with charming details. The silver sink taps were shaped like bramble-antlered moose heads, their antlers forming an H and a C. Above her, she could see the ceiling was more exposed beams, with round lights recessed into the wood. Letting out a small sigh of relief, she switched on the light and stepped in, starting to close the door when Yonji blocked it with his arm. “I told you I was coming too,” he reminded her, grinning as he joined her in the bathroom.

Musette considered objecting, but thought better of it as he wrapped his arms around her again. He had figured out _quickly_ that his arms were the key to getting what he wanted from Musette, and Yonji was more than happy to cash in. “If you say so…”

When they emerged from the bathroom well over an hour later, it was even darker outside than when they’d first gotten up. Snow was beginning to mound on the windowsill, and Musette looked out worriedly as she tied her hair up and pulled her dress back on. “I hope we have stuff to make food downstairs,” she muttered anxiously, tugging her dress’s skirt into place. She had no idea how late any of the restaurants were open, or where any of the grocery stores were. Going a bit without eating didn’t faze Musette, but glancing over at Yonji as he pulled his pants back on, she knew he would be a different story. “Or we might go hungry tonight.”

“That’s not going to happen.” With his shirt in no condition to be worn and their luggage missing, Yonji was in pants only. Not that Musette minded. He turned to leave the room, stretching again. “There has to be _some_ food somewhere. Your friends might know where to get some if there’s nothing downstairs.”

Musette couldn’t dispute that. At least Aspen and Sofi had been to Neigebelle at some point in the past, she had gathered. She followed Yonji out of the room, taking care to quietly close the door behind them. The hallway was calm and quiet, and the Chateau felt still around them. Yonji made his way to the stairs, pulling Musette to his side and holding her against him. “Did Aspen and Sofi really come in?” Musette asked, beginning to feel skeptical the longer she listened to the quietness around them. 

“I was pretty sure I heard the door earlier.” Yonji was beginning to sound like he was having doubts as well. He started down the stairs.

“Wait.” Musette paused before following him, craning her head towards the end of the hallway across from them. It was dark and empty, but she could pick up some very faint noises. She closed her eyes, trying to focus on the sound. “Yeah, nevermind, they’re here.”

Yonji raised an eyebrow as they continued downstairs, stepping over their bags, which had been left directly at the bottom of the stairs. “I didn’t hear anything…” The bottom floor was a disaster zone, with broken glass, frames, and shards of ceramic all over the hallway. Musette could see damaged photos still sitting in their frames, discarded on the floor. The patches on the wall where they had hung were discolored. “Don’t remember everything looking like this…”

“I heard something upstairs. Trust me.” Stepping over the mess, Musette shook her head tiredly. “When you’ve walked in on the stuff _I’ve_ walked in on, you learn to listen.” There was no mistaking the sound of Aspen’s light, breathless whimpers. Musette knew what those meant, and she didn’t want to investigate any further.

“Walked in on stuff?” Yonji suddenly seemed more interested in what Musette was telling him than searching for a kitchen as they explored the back half of the Chateau, passing a few offices and a lounge area with a bar. Musette rolled her eyes at the excitement in his voice, knowing full well he was trying to visualize it. “Between the princess and the other chick, you mean.”

“Too many times.” Musette loved Aspen and Sofi, but she had perpetually bad timing and had often walked in on them _in flagrante_. She shuddered at the thought as they walked down the hall, peeking in doorways for a kitchen. “Maybe the kitchen is that room right down -”

“ _Together_ , you mean?” Yonji was practically salivating, and Musette knew it wasn’t at the thought of food. It made sense. Even though she was not personally interested in either Aspen or Sofi like that, they were both very pretty. “How long has that been going on? Does Ichiji know? Do they like, sneak around doing that or?”

Musette gave Yonji a Look, which only made him laugh. As she’d suspected, there was a nicely-sized kitchen at almost the very back of the building, with dark wooden cabinetry and appliances as nice as what could be found back at the palace. “I am not discussing their relationship with you,” Musette distractedly rebuked Yonji as she flipped on the lights, taking in what she had to work with. 

There was an open pantry door, and Musette looked inside for any kind of food. She spotted large jars of sauces, and several containers of pasta. Musette looked them all over carefully as she brought some of it out to set on the kitchen island, looking for any indication of how long they’d been sitting there, but found none. _“Same as back at the palace,”_ Musette thought to herself, nervously opening one of the sauce jars. The other kitchen staff had offhandedly mentioned Hoarfrost technology being so advanced that food could be stored indefinitely without going bad, but she’d never tested it. She didn’t detect any sign of spoilage in the open sauce, and Musette nervously tasted a small bit with a spoon.

It was all flavorful tomato and garden veggies, with some herbs. Even the smell was delicious. “This seems to be okay. We’re gonna all have to settle for pasta tonight.”

“Food is food,” Yonji shrugged. “So who are we getting to make it?”

Musette sighed, taking her hair down before tying it right back up more tightly. She didn’t want to risk getting any of it in the food. “ _I’ll_ make it.” She opened a few cabinets, looking for pots and utensils, and found a few on her second try. A small one for the sauce, a large one for the pasta. She had a feeling she was going to need a lot of both, even if there were only four of them. “I’m pretty sure there’s nobody else here to handle it.”

He frowned. “The curly-haired girl -”

“Sofi.”

“Whatever. _She_ said this was supposed to be a vacation. So you’re not supposed to be working.” Smugly grinning as though he had found a loophole of sorts, he folded his arms across his bare chest.

“Are you hungry, Yonji?” Musette asked in a very tired voice.

“Well yeah, but -”

“Then be _quiet_ and let me cook.”

To his credit, he did, though he did not look happy about it. He sat up on the kitchen island while Musette worked, putting the sauce over heat on the stovetop and setting salted water to boil for the pasta. She watched it all carefully, looking for plates and cutlery until she could finally add the pasta. Once she’d poured all of it in, she let out a loud sigh and turned back to Yonji, who had not stopped watching her with a frown. “ _What?_ You keep _staring_ at me and it’s getting very old.” Musette struggled to keep her voice calm. Even with whatever turn their “relationship” had taken, she couldn’t let herself get too comfortable and familiar with him. He was still a prince.

“Cooking is for commoners.” 

“Yonji, I really didn’t think you needed me to tell you this, but I _am_ a commoner.” Stirring the sauce, Musette leaned in and inhaled its scent. The warmer it got, the more the smell of the sauce would fill the kitchen - she loved that part. “Not to mention I enjoy doing this. I honestly really like cooking. I prefer making desserts though.”

His look of disapproval intensified. “Are you trying to tell me you _like_ slaving away all day in the kitchen?”

Musette was beginning to feel more and more tired. Even Aspen and Sofi didn’t rag on her for her culinary aspirations. “I don’t just ~slave away~ in the kitchen,” Musette snapped, continuing to stir the sauce as it heated up further. “I experiment with recipes, I try new ingredients in things, and when I'm alone, I like to sing -”

Quickly, she cut herself off and clamped her mouth shut, turning fully away from Yonji as she busied herself with the food. Musette could feel her face burning hot with embarrassment. Not even Sofi or Aspen knew about _that_. 

“You sing?” Yonji’s disapproval was gone in an instant, and he leaned towards her eagerly. “Why haven't you done that for me before? I want to hear you sing.”

“I do not sing on command.” Not anymore. The thought alone made Musette’s skin crawl, and she shook her head to push away the memories that were trying to resurface. It had been such a good day. She wouldn’t let it be ruined now. Removing the sauce from the heat and setting it off to the side, she turned her attention to the pasta, giving a quick glance over her shoulder at Yonji. His eyes had narrowed, and he had cocked his head to the side. “Maybe some other time,” she added hurriedly, hoping he would drop it.

“You know I could just _order_ you to -”

Yonji did not get to finish telling Musette what, exactly, he could order her to do before a shoe came flying from the doorway. It struck him hard on the side of the head with an audible _thump_ , nearly toppling him off the island and onto the floor. Musette gasped, stumbling backwards and stopping just short of bumping into the boiling pot of pasta. Incensed, Yonji righted himself, looking over for who had thrown the shoe. He didn’t have to look far.

“How many times?” Aspen hissed, quickly closing in on him from where she’d been standing in the kitchen doorway. Her black hair streamed behind her in loose waves, and she was out of the staff dress she’d worn on the way up. Even in plain leggings and a half-unbuttoned shirt, and as small as she was, she looked intimidating as she got in Yonji’s face. “ _How many times_ have I warned you about that?”

“No, it’s okay!” Musette, seeking to avert a disaster, quickly jumped between them, throwing her arm straight out. They had already butted heads on the train ride up, and she did not want a reenactment. “Really. He was joking, Aspen.”

“Strange...that didn’t _sound_ like a joke.” A familiar but out-of-place voice slyly chimed in from the doorway. Musette felt her eyes go round when she saw it was Niji, leaning against the doorway and grinning at what was unfolding. He was dressed as he always was, black pants and white shirt with that section of his exposed chest, as if he'd just appeared in the Chateau from his usual place in the palace. “It sounded like you were about to be ordered to sing. I probably would have done the same...I’ve ordered servants to do far worse for my amusement.”

Aspen’s green eyes went stormy as she shot him a nasty look. “Shut up.”

Yonji, no longer angry, looked befuddled at the sight of his brother. “I _thought_ I saw you at the train station. Why are you here?” He sounded almost disappointed. Musette wondered if Yonji was enjoying being the only guy in the house.

“Protection for the princess.” Niji’s smile widened, flashing his teeth and sending a shiver down Musette’s back. “Only a fool would trust _you_ with a duchess and a princess.”

“Oh, Sofi!” Musette quickly changed the subject, turning her whole focus on Aspen again, who was glaring past Musette at Yonji again. “Is she upstairs? Should I go see if she wants - oh no, the pasta!” She broke away from Yonji and Aspen as she remembered their dinner, quickly grabbing the pot of bubbling water by the handles and draining it carefully into the sink.

Aspen nodded slowly as she turned the range off for Musette, a confused expression on her face. “Isn’t she down here with you guys?”

“She wasn’t upstairs with you?” Musette couldn’t conceal the surprise in her voice as she returned the drained pasta to its pot. She knew what Aspen’s moans sounded like and she knew she’d heard them when she and Yonji had been upstairs. Unless she had just been by herself, that was always possible. Musette supposed she hadn’t considered that…

“ _I_ was upstairs with the princess.” Niji had left his spot in the doorway to sidle up alongside his brother, smiling pointedly at Musette. She took a step back to put distance between them. Did he always smile at people like that? “We’re the only people here.”

Musette nodded at the stack of plates she’d set out on the counter, and then gave Aspen a quick, pointed look - one she would know well. “She’s probably just napping somewhere upstairs,” she said, trying to be as casual as possible while addressing Aspen and Aspen alone. “We should go find her so she doesn’t miss a chance to get some food.”

Yonji hopped down from the kitchen island. “Fine, but let’s make this quick.”

Niji’s smile vanished, and his expression turned angry. “There is _no one_ here but us. And you need to serve dinner.”

“Excuse the FUCK out of you two.” Aspen glared at both of them as Musette followed her out of the kitchen. Neither prince looked pleased with her rebuke, but they didn’t make a move to follow them. “She was talking to _me_ , and you two are perfectly fucking capable of serving yourselves dinner. Go eat and try being less fucking irritating when we get back.”

Before either Niji or Yonji could think better of it and decide to follow them after all, Musette quickly pulled Aspen down the hall, past the shattered pieces on the floor, over the bags and up the stairs. She snuck them into a room at the top of the stairs, on the opposite side of the hall from when Musette and Yonji had been.

“I told you, she’s not here.” Aspen gestured to the room that was apparently hers. The staff dress she had worn earlier was thrown over a chair in the corner, and her violin was sitting on the dresser, carefully closed in its case. Her bed was as messy as Musette and Yonji had left theirs, and it was empty. “She must’ve gone out if you didn’t see her downstairs.”

Musette locked the door, and dropped down onto the chair with Aspen’s dress. Her feet ached, and she pulled them onto her seat as she folded her legs. She took a deep breath, trying to process everything she needed to ask Aspen. Things she had been sitting on for ages. “Do you know when the last time was that you and I had even a brief second alone?”

“A few days ago, when I showed you the wanted reindeer poster and you stabbed some people in the kitchen later on.” Aspen flopped onto the bed, and for a brief moment the air in the room was a mix of spicy musk and warm sweetness. Musette recognized both scents - one was Aspen’s. She couldn’t place the other, but she had a bad feeling she knew who it belonged to.

“I’m not counting that.” It had been for maybe five minutes, and then Niji had shown up and interrupted. Aspen had climbed all over him, trying to get the poster back. She’d fallen asleep at lunch afterwards...and Niji had carried her off. None of it sat right with Musette - and Aspen being carried away by Niji had almost been forgotten with the kitchen incident that had followed. “We haven’t talked properly in ages.”

Aspen looked sad, rolling onto her side as she lay in bed. Musette could see dark circles under her eyes, and the rest of her seemed even paler than usual. She tucked her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, looking very small. “You’re right. God, I’m sure you have like, a thousand questions you want to ask.”

What Musette _wanted_ to ask was ‘what the fuck is going on?’ but she decided against leading with that. She started with the most pressing question first. “Where is Sofi? What happened downstairs that there’s such a mess in the hall? And why is Niji here?” The more Musette thought about it, the more she didn’t like it. She _knew_ she had heard Aspen’s moaning and whimpering earlier, and she thought again to Niji’s casual assertion that he had been upstairs with Aspen. She wasn’t sure what to make of any of it. 

“I don’t know. Really. There was an incident. Not that we fought or anything. Nothing like that.” Aspen lowered her gaze, looking pink-cheeked and embarrassed. “She was drunk, and I was freaking out because I thought I’d misplaced something important. I, uh. Lost it. I came up here to cool down. Sofi must have left.”

Musette cringed. She knew full well what happened when Aspen ‘lost it.’ For a moment, she thought to ask how she hadn’t heard anything - and then her very vivid memories of her busy afternoon came flooding back. “What did you lose?” She asked hastily, blushing.

Aspen indicated a messy stack of papers on her bedside table. There was lots of tiny print on it, but Musette could make out some kind of eagle on the top page. “These. It’s Germa’s copy of the marriage agreement between me and Ichiji. Part of why I wanted to come up here and get out of the palace was so I could review it in peace. See if I can find a way out of it.”

“Oh, you found it?”

“Uh. Kind of. Niji had it.” Aspen’s gaze darted from Musette’s, her cheeks tinting pink again.

“Which brings us to my last question…”

Sighing, Aspen rubbed tiredly at her eyes. “Fuck, I have no idea. He followed us last night, I’m assuming. Took the same train and everything. I didn’t even know he was here until after I’d had my epic meltdown.”

Musette thought, _again_ , to the noises she’d heard. Aspen had been with Niji. There was no question. She’d heard rumors that he’d disappeared with her that one night, when she’d been missing from the special dinner. Musette hadn’t believed it at the time. All she’d ever seen between them was screaming disagreements and spats over everything and anything. It was well-understood by the staff that the two of them disliked each other, and they were given a wide berth whenever they had to be in the same space.

 _“He asked her for a kiss,”_ Musette suddenly remembered, her eyes going wide again, thinking of the odd interaction she had witnessed, undetected, the morning after the welcome reception. She’d been in a closet and they had come back from wherever they’d disappeared to after the bake shop. Niji had run his fingers through Aspen’s hair, had been standing so close to her the whole time. There hadn’t been any arguing. _“She was blushing.”_

“Musette?” Aspen was looking at her worriedly. “Are you alright?”

“Is everything _actually_ okay? With Ichiji? Like you said?” Musette blurted out. She didn’t need the answer - she knew the truth, she’d seen the bruises on Aspen’s neck the morning after the party, she saw how little sleep Aspen had been getting - but she wanted Aspen to be honest with her. “You told me he was okay. On the quiet side but okay.”

Slowly, Aspen sat up, leaning against the massive pile of pillows with a humorless, flat smile on her face. Beside her head, on the white pillowcases, Musette could see a few loose strands of blue hair. “He made me blow him, multiple times, in my bedroom. Not even an hour after we talked and you went to work.” Her voice was barely louder than a whisper, and it felt like Musette had been punched in the gut all over again. “That night, he, uh...he came to my room again and forced himself on me. I was drunk. I was really, really drunk. I went with it for most of it because I thought he was Sofi. Right up until...well, I’m sure you can imagine. It’s been like that ever since. Whenever he wants me. Wherever he wants me.”

Musette knew the feeling well. “Oh, Aspen, I’m so -”

“Don’t say you’re sorry,” Aspen interrupted, a distant look in her eyes as she focused them up on the ceiling. Musette knew that look, too. How many times had she done it? “You have nothing to be sorry to me for. I’ve got it all under control.”

Feeling heartbroken, Musette timidly tried to open her mouth. “But...Nexus…” How had Nexus not intervened? Why hadn’t Aspen fought back? She had so many questions, and she didn’t feel she could ask any of them. Musette knew why _she_ had never fought back, before, when it had been her in such a situation. Aspen was stronger, in every way. It didn’t make sense.

“I can’t tell Nexus. I can’t use my telekinesis. I have to figure something else out. But as I said - I have it under control. Please don’t tell Sofi.” One blink, and the faraway look was gone, replaced with a teasing smile. “Things are going well with you, though. I noticed Yonji’s allowed to touch you now.”

“I...well..I mean…” Musette stammered, feeling the slightest bit of whiplash from the abrupt change in topics. Couldn't tell Nexus? Couldn't use her telekinesis? It left Musette even more confused and frustrated than how she'd started. It was evident from her tone, however, Aspen would not say more on her own predicament - and to push would only make her clam up. Musette knew that, and she resigned herself to approach it at a later time. “I guess you could say that…”

Aspen gave her a stern look, furrowing her brow. “Spend less time worrying about me and spend more time having fun with him.” Closing her eyes, she stretched out on the bed, her fingertips tapping against the headboard. “Weirdly, I get the feeling he genuinely likes you, if you can look past him being a fucking moron. I mean, in spite of what Nexus told us about him and his brothers.”

“I can spend time on both!” Musette objected, beginning to feel guilty for having enjoyed any aspect of Germa’s visit while Aspen had been in hell. From Yonji to the bulk of the staff being away. Musette felt slightly ashamed of herself.

“I’m telling you not to.” Aspen glanced out the window, and Musette saw the snow swirling so heavily, she could not see a single thing through the glass. “Now...let’s figure out where the hell Sofi disappeared to.”


	32. ASPEN VIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- there's blood  
> \- sexual stuff so NSFW warning

“Where’s Nexus?” Aspen looked at the faces around the table, dimly lit by the flickering of the fireplace, and aged wall sconces. It was the Council, all smiling politely at her with hands folded on the tabletop, looking just as lizardy as they always had. She spotted other people as well, not Council members - visitors? Aspen squinted at them from where she sat, trying to get a better look, but didn’t recognize them. They wore suits like the Council, and they wore sunglasses as well. Very unnecessary for how dark the room was. Aspen felt uneasy at the sight of them.

Torvig, directly to her left, looked slightly less reptilian and skeletal as he reached over and patted her gently on the arm. Her first reaction was slap his hand away, to recoil - as she would if he _ever_ touched her, ever - but Aspen stayed still, gazing up at his face as he gave her a constricted smile. “He’ll come get you in a bit, your highness. We just needed your help with important business concerning the kingdom, and we could not wait for him. I’m sure you understand.”

 _“I’m here because Torvig brought me here,”_ Aspen remembered, looking around again at all the other Council members. After hearing Torvig’s words, many of them had begun to shift nervously in their seats, and not a single one of them would meet her eyes. It unsettled her to her core, and she could not quite put her finger on why. _“I’m...back at the palace now?”_

She had been in Neigebelle, with Sofi and Musette. She’d spent ages calling different stores and restaurants, trying to hunt down Sofi, and then she had received a transponder call herself before she could call another handful of places. It was Sofi - drunk - and with the rest of the Sanofi family. Sofi had spoken about it casually enough, despite Aspen knowing how much she hated being stuck with her family. Particularly Saki. Aspen had chalked it up to the booze.

“My mom knows I’m drunk, so I uh. Guess I’m. You know. Staying here tonight.” Sofi had only sounded bitter at the tail end of the call. Aspen had said nothing, and had let Sofi ramble to her heart’s content. She’d _wanted_ to spend the night with Sofi. She was glad to be rid of Ichiji, for a time, but she didn’t want to be alone, either. “You understand, right?”

Aspen supposed she did. But it didn’t make her happy.

Torvig gripped her arm tighter, snapping her straight out of any thoughts of Sofi. His hand felt massive on her, gripping her entire forearm as though it were nothing. Even in the poor lighting, Aspen could see his face was tight and stressed. “It will be very easy, your highness, nothing too hard for you. I promise it will be fast and then you can go back to your room and play with the young duchess. Your pappa isn’t with us anymore, so it is very important that we can count on you to help.”

 _“Pappa is gone.”_ Of course he was gone. He had been gone for years. Aspen was well aware of that. Even so, Torvig’s words were a sharp blow, and tears pricked at her eyes and flowed down her cheeks in short order. The corners of her mouth tugged sharply downward and her breath hitched in her throat without warning. Her pain felt agonizingly fresh, and her grief raw and naked. Aspen shifted uncomfortably in her chair, which was far too big for her, lifting her hands to hide her face behind the sleeves she’d pulled over her hands. She didn’t want all these people to see her cry.

“Can you help us, Princess Aspen?” Torvig asked again, his voice beginning to sound noticeably strained. Aspen could not help but notice it. She watched as he shot a nervous look in the direction of the door. It was closed, as it always was during meetings, and the carved scenes in its panels were illuminated in the firelight. The old kings of Hoarfrost fleeing the kingdom during Germa’s attack. Noelle Frostbane leading an uprising. Germa being thrown out of the kingdom. Noelle being crowned the Queen of all Hoarfrost. Stories from history that Aspen had heard over and over again. “Please?”

_“Is someone coming?”_

“I...I think so. Maybe.” Aspen cringed at the sound of her voice, shaking, sad, and weak. It didn’t sound much like her at all. She pulled her legs onto the chair, switching into a kneeling position and leaning against the table. Sitting up higher as she was, she could see more of the Council room than before. It was a beautiful room, but oppressive and uninviting. She could make out the cornice molding in silver and gold on the ceiling, forming all kinds of pretty shapes, and all the cookie-cutter paintings of various winterscapes hung in neat and orderly rows on both walls behind where the members of the Council sat. Even though she’d always hated the paintings, seeing them made her smile. _“Pappa used to pick me up and let me touch the tops of the frames.”_

Aspen felt her stomach give a strange jolt as she continued to stare at the paintings, barely acknowledging Torvig as he set a large stack of papers in front of her. She had been in the Council room scarcely a month earlier. There were no more paintings, no molding, no nothing. Just blank, colorless walls and the hideous fireplace. 

Torvig flipped over almost the entire stack, leaving only the very last page in front of her. At the top, there was an eagle, and what looked like a continuation of some kind of important legal paperwork. The words didn’t make any sense to Aspen, and she did not try to read or understand. At the very bottom, there were two signature lines. The first line had a name clumsily filled in, as if it had been done by a child. The second was blank.

“No need to worry yourself with the mumbo-jumbo…”

_“The Council room hasn’t looked like this since I was eight. When I destroyed it.”_

“All you need to do is sign on that line, your highness.”

_“Why did I destroy it?”_

Aspen’s hands moved on their own, pushing her sleeves up to her wrists and grabbing the pen that Torvig had set down for her to use. She moved it to the blank space reserved for her signature before she could will herself to stop. Something was not right. There had to have been a very good reason for destroying the Council room. _“What was it? And how did I even do it?”_

Her hand moved again, touching the tip of the pen to the signature space. And then she stopped again. Around her, she could feel the Council members tensing and un-tensing, shooting looks over at the door. Aspen’s eyes fell on the name directly beside where hers was to go, a name that seemed to be of equal status to hers. The other half. “Who is Ichiji Vinsmoke?” Aspen asked, in a high-pitched, polite voice that had not been hers for years. _“And by the way, why am I a child again?”_

The name was frustratingly familiar to her, and Aspen set the pen down beside the paper as she traced over the signature with a finger. Even if she couldn’t place the name, she liked the way it felt, with its rises and dips, and tracing it brought a smile to her face. Aspen traced it over and over, secure in the knowledge that she both knew the name, and didn’t know the name. After a moment, she looked back up again to find the Council and their guests staring at her anxiously, all the shadows on their faces pronounced in the firelight. A handful of them, again, looked over at the door. It was still closed.

“Who is Ichiji Vinsmoke?” Aspen asked again, as politely as she could. She couldn’t really understand why, but it felt _very_ important to her that she try to remember. He was right there, right beside where they wanted to put her. Or his name was, anyway. The least they could do was tell her who he was.

“Don’t fret about that, your highness.” Torvig answered her through a clenched jaw, and she could see that his eyes were narrowed. All around the table, it seemed everyone else was fidgeting in their seats, watching her, waiting for her to sign. But Torvig’s reaction wasn’t right. He couldn’t be mad at her just for asking a fair question. As she watched him, his eyes again darted to the door.

_“Why does he keep looking at the door?”_

“Just sign the paper.”

“Who is he?” Aspen insisted, even as her hand again moved the pen back to the blank space. Another glance at the name and she felt her stomach starting to hurt - but why? It felt like she was overlooking something crucial, and it was beginning to make her angry. _Why_ did they keep looking at the door? _Who_ was this person? And _why_ had she destroyed the Council room? Or...had she? Aspen looked around at the room again, confused. It was very clearly not destroyed. Why had the notion of her destroying it crossed her mind?

Torvig brought his open palms down hard on the surface of the table, the sharp slapping sound making everyone jump. Aspen looked at him, startled and embarrassed when she realized everyone was looking at her once more. “Aspen,” he hissed so only she could hear. “Sign the fucking paper.”

Slowly, keeping her head down so her hair hung in her face, Aspen began to move the pen against the paper. The ink flowed smoothly and cleanly, red and shiny in the light. It was bright and almost hypnotic as Aspen stared down at it. 

_“Ichiji.”_ The memories and feelings came back all at once, as if it had been injected directly into her veins. She could recall, clearly, a mouth on hers, hands gripping her hips, legs between hers. _“Him. Prince Ichiji. Heir to Germa. The red-haired nightmare. My_ **_fiance_ ** _. I destroyed this room because they tricked me into signing...”_

Aspen felt her breath locking in her throat as she looked down to see herself finishing her signature, careful and delicate on the page. Directly beside Ichiji’s.

_“...The marriage agreement.”_

The door exploded open, its knob punching a hole into the wall opposite before nearly bouncing closed again. Aspen, forgetting all recognition of the marriage contract for what it was, dropped the pen and turned quickly around to see someone dressed in a pressed back suit with a lab coat thrown over his shoulders storming in. His blue eyes were narrowed and cold, his jawline defined and rigid with anger, with well-defined muscles visible through his suit sleeves - despite his slender frame. Anger was rippling off of him as he stopped short in the doorway, surveying the scene in the Council room as he took a long, deep drag on a cigarette pressed between his lips.

Aspen felt her blood freezing, and then rapidly unfreezing at the sight of his sloppy golden hair. _“It’s Nexus,”_ she told herself as she turned back around in her chair, hunching her shoulders over and trying to look as small as possible. She knew it was him, with his messy hair, his cigarettes and his lab coat. Nexus, who took care of her and the kingdom now that Pappa was gone. It did little to comfort her. She could feel her head starting to ache and throb in pain. _“It’s only Nexus.”_ For a brief - and horrifying - moment, Aspen had thought it was Ichiji.

“What is the meaning of this?” Nexus kept his voice level, but there was no mistaking the anger imbued in every syllable. She listened to his footsteps as he came up behind her, and she started trembling. Nexus had reminded her so many times, she was never to speak with the Council without him. She was never to sign anything without him. Aspen had broken _both_ of his rules. Nexus stood beside her, and she watched as his eyes fell on the paper still flat in front of her, her signature still wet and shiny. Nexus’s face went ashen at the sight of it. Immediately, he shot out a hand to snatch it, and Torvig grabbed it before he could. 

As he pulled it from Nexus, Aspen watched a droplet of blood fall and splatter right on the edge. She brought a hand to her nose, and when she checked her fingers, they were smudged with blood. Her nose was bleeding - and a nosebleed meant another seizure was coming. She watched as he quickly handed it off to the visitors she hadn’t recognized, who took that page and that page alone - with the signatures and the tail end of the agreement - and hustled out of the room. As the door closed behind them, the pain in her head bloomed more forcefully, and Aspen brought both hands to her skull and pressed. Nexus dropped a protective hand onto her shoulder, and squeezed it tightly. “Nexus,” Aspen whispered, trying to get his attention by tugging on his sleeve. “My nose is -”

“How dare you.” Nexus’s voice was soft and dangerous, and he had zeroed in on Torvig and the rest of the Council. Not a single scrap of ire was aimed at her, but terror gripped Aspen all the same. Why did Nexus sound so much like _him?_ “If I had the right to snap your neck where you stand...I wouldn’t hesitate.”

“I wouldn’t expect _you_ to understand. You have no idea what was being offered.” Torvig quickly snapped back, but from his face, Aspen could see that Nexus’s rage unsettled him. “The civil war left our fighting numbers decimated. We have no idea how long before the population will bounce back. Germa is willing to supply us with soldiers, endless soldiers, and access to their technology. Do you even comprehend what a boon that would be to Hoarfrost?”

“Are you really asking a _scientist_ if he grasps how revolutionary Germa’s works are?” Nexus sneered at Torvig, who faltered slightly. Aspen felt Nexus squeeze her shoulder tighter. “Idiot. You sold off your own kingdom’s princess for some soldiers. Germa is going to gain a kingdom _merger_ from this. It is nowhere near an equal trade. Did you even _tell_ her what she was signing, or did you manipulate a child to serve your own ends?”

“The ends I serve are the kingdom’s!” Torvig snarled, his wizened face pinching in outrage. Not a single member of the Council agreed, or backed him up in any way. Aspen watched as most sipped at their water or shuffled their papers, pretending they could not see the confrontation unfolding right in front of them.

Nexus ignored him. “I highly doubt Princess Aspen would have knowingly agreed to marry Prince Ichiji of Germa, sight unseen. Don’t lie to me and say you serve the kingdom.”

Aspen whipped her head up to gawk at Nexus, stomach dropping to her feet at his words. Another wave of pain ripped through her skull, and she could feel the blood dripping from her nose onto her lap. The horror at his words was all-consuming, and Aspen felt awash in confusion. _“I already knew it was a marriage contract,”_ Aspen mused internally as her body locked up in panic. _“Why am I acting like this is brand-new information?”_ Fresh pain tore through her head again, shoving against the inside of her skull. Aspen braced herself for the seizure to start in earnest, but it did not. Beneath her hands, she felt the long, heavy table shudder. After a few seconds, it rose slightly before dropping back down. Glasses of water spilled and rolled off, and papers fluttered onto the floor. A couple members of the Council murmured confusedly to each other, with some of them looking under the table and scratching their heads. Aspen’s panic continued to grow, as did the pain in her head. _“What is happening?”_

Distantly, Aspen could hear a soft, faint voice. “Aspen.” It was insistent, and teasing in its tone. “Assssssspen.”

“As the princess’s council, we decided -”

“You mean _you_ decided. You. Without consulting me. The regent.”

Her head throbbed, again, and Aspen doubled over in pain. Nexus had left her side and now stood toe to toe with Torvig, the both of them snarling and exchanging furious threats as the others all watched. The table lurched upwards again, before stalling and slamming back onto the floor loudly. There was a strange cracking, groaning noise, and she looked up to see the ceiling directly above her beginning to contract and buckle, as though it were breathing. Now thoroughly distracted from Nexus and Torvig, the other members of the Council backed away from the table, stumbling backwards into the wall as they pointed to the ceiling.

The voice she was hearing was getting louder. “Princess...Princess...you bratty little shit, open the door…”

“Nexus,” Aspen whined, crouching low in her chair, arms over her head as it continued to throb torturously. All along the walls, the paintings went flying, splintering far across the room from where they’d hung. The table lifted again, several feet into the air and went shooting into the fireplace, sending glowing embers and ash in every direction. Even Nexus and Torvig could not ignore that, and they immediately ceased their argument and began looking for the cause. Nexus looked to the ceiling and all over the walls as the Council tore out of the lurching room, but Torvig looked right at Aspen, and she saw his eyes go wide in terror. _“He knows I’m doing it. He didn’t look anywhere else at all.”_

Aspen felt herself being yanked out of the chair by Nexus, who pulled her into his arms as the section of ceiling above her collapsed, with broken pipes spraying water onto them as the heavy slab fell. Splintered wood and exposed nails caught Nexus’s right arm before he could turn away, tearing through his clothes right down to the skin. To Aspen’s shock, and through the shower of water, plaster, and dust, Nexus’s skin had not suffered any injury whatsoever, completely unbroken where bent nails had raked deeply.

The sight of his unbroken skin triggered a sudden wave of nausea, compounding the agony Aspen felt in her head. She clung to Nexus as the room fell apart around them, the walls breaking free from their wooden framework and collapsing as broken pipes hissed and sprayed water, drenching everything. Another section of ceiling exploded, hitting Aspen in the head with chunks of plaster and wood. She let out a shriek as she shot straight up in Nexus’s arms like a terrified cat, wrapping her arms around his head and pressing her face against him. _“I’m doing this,”_ Aspen again reminded herself, oddly calm within the confines of her head as she clutched at Nexus in terror, letting him stumble blindly for the door as the room disintegrated. _“They tricked me into signing that agreement. This was my first ‘episode’ that didn’t just sputter into a seizure.”_ So then, was it all a dream? Aspen assumed it was, even for how vivid and real it felt, but she kept sobbing all the same. Nexus somehow made it to the door - the heavy door with its depictions of the Frostbane dynasty's birth - and threw it open, feeling his way into the hallway with Aspen, who was still actively bleeding onto him. The door slammed shut behind them of its own accord, sealing off the chaos within.

Accompanying the odd disembodied voice that seemed to keep growing louder was a muffled knocking that echoed. “If I don’t get an answer, I’m going to let myself in...last chance, Princess Aspen…”

In the long hallway outside the Council room, the silence and stillness was deafening. On the verge of hyperventilating, Aspen pressed her face harder against Nexus’s hair, fouling it further with her blood as she tried to collect herself. She felt Nexus’s hands on her, trying to calmly and carefully untangle her from around his head, and she slowly loosened her grip. Gasping for air without Aspen’s torso sealed over his mouth and nose, Nexus gently set her down. Aspen’s legs immediately failed her, and she fell backward, still shaking.

“Aspen.” Nexus squatted down beside her, his lab coat dropping to the carpeted floor, soaked in water and plaster mix from the ceiling. He set his hands on her shoulders, pulling her upright again. She whipped her head from side to side, shaking her long hair out of her eyes. “Aspen, Aspen, Aspen. It’s okay. You’re alright. You’re safe. It’s okay.”

“Ready or not, Princess Aspen…”

Blinking rapidly, Aspen looked up at Nexus from her spot on the floor, her head still in pain and blood streaming steadily from her nose in rhythm with the throbbing. Her clutching at his head had caused a section of hair to flop messily over one eye, and her blood had smeared it from its golden shade to an uncommonly bright red. Aspen’s shaking stopped, and her breath stuck fast in her throat.

He smiled. “It’s okay.”

Aspen looked at him. And then she started to scream.

“I’ve had _quite enough_ of you ignoring me.” Aspen felt herself being jerked forward by a force she could not see, and everything around her winked out of existence. She was in her bed, in her room, in Neigebelle. The room was cool and almost completely dark, and Aspen could see the peaks of the back property through her window, their snow coats glittering in the moonlight. There were hands on her shoulders again, and she followed them to a figure kneeling beside her on the bed. As her eyes adjusted, she could see they were naked except for undershorts, and slim and muscular in build. Then Aspen inhaled that familiar scent, and saw the goggles and the flash of teeth. “The other two seem to be competing for who can moan the loudest. And if they won’t sleep, and I can’t sleep, _you_ don’t get to sleep either.”

“Fuck off, Niji.” The answer was automatic, and almost completely emotionless as Aspen tried to process what had happened. She was soaked to the bone in sweat, and shivering despite the layers of thick blankets she’d been wrapped in. It was obvious she’d had some kind of nightmare, but already she found herself struggling to recall any details of note. Nexus had been there, and perhaps Ichiji as well? She had been back at the palace...but why? Aspen couldn’t remember anything.

Niji seemed to pick up that something was strange about Aspen, and he leaned in closer until his face was a few inches from hers. His brow was furrowed, mouth set in a frown. “That didn’t have your usual amount of spite in it. I wonder if there isn’t something wrong with you.”

Aspen was not foolish enough to try and seek comfort from _Niji_ of all people, and she shook off her strange feeling long enough to scowl at him as she pushed his hands off of her. “There’s nothing fucking wrong with me, aside from you being in here and waking me up.” She laid back down, rolling onto her side to avoid the damp sheets where she’d been sleeping before. Her stomach ached, and the uneasiness wouldn’t go away. And there was a chance that if she went back to sleep, she would just have another nightmare. “If you want to try and sleep here, you can, but I’d rather snort crushed glass than stay up and listen to you complain.”

He made a derisive sound, but didn’t move. Aspen pulled the blankets up over her head, listening. She wasn’t about to beg him to stay, but even his company would be appreciated. She just knew she didn’t want to be alone. Thankfully, after a good bit of staying in place, he got up and climbed into bed next to her, quickly cuddling up in a spooning position behind her. As always, his body was warm to the touch, and Aspen sighed contentedly. Niji was no Sofi, but it was something. 

“So then.” He reached an arm around Aspen, gently sliding it around her waist. A small shudder went through her body at his touch, which annoyed her slightly. His fingers traced the shape of her face, before catching her at her chin and tilting her head back against him. She felt his mouth brushing against the top of her head, triggering another shudder. “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong with you?”

“Why? You don’t care.” Talking to him was at least making her feel normal again. The ache in her stomach was beginning to slowly abate, and the dread she’d felt hanging over her was clearing up. Her breathing had not yet gone back to normal, but she didn’t think she’d breathed normally around Niji for a long time.

“True. I don’t. That doesn’t mean I’m not interested.” 

Aspen could appreciate the honesty. She didn’t want any false sympathy anyway. “I had a nightmare. I’m over it.”

“Tch. You can’t tell me that and not elaborate.” He was nuzzling his face into her hair, and his breath was hot against her scalp. Aspen wondered if Musette and Yonji really had woken him up, or if they had just been a convenient excuse. Niji shifted the arm he’d draped over her, and she felt him moving his hand to her chest, playing with the buttons on her pajama top. 

“I don’t remember it, really. And even if I did, I wouldn’t talk about it with you.” Aspen quite liked wherever this touching was going. She hoped it would be more of the same from earlier in the day. He moved his mouth from the top of her head to the side of her neck, brushing hair out of the way as he began sucking, throwing a few sharp bites into the mix and making her whole body go stiff. It was very quickly getting very hot beneath the blankets. “Do you ever get nightmares?”

He chuckled, triggering another little shiver from Aspen. She liked how he sounded when he laughed - though if Niji were to ever ask, she would deny it. “Every night, more or less...I can count on one hand the nights when I haven’t. And one of those times was after arriving in Hoarfrost.” He bit down on Aspen’s neck again, and she responded by pressing her hips back and grinding slowly against him. He was already harder than she had anticipated, and moved her hips in circular motions, pressing her ass into him. “So is this how flirting works for you now, princess? You act like a complete brat and pretend not to be interested?”

“Oh, of course. You like it?” Niji undid a few of the buttons at the center of her top and slid his hand inside, making Aspen squirm.

“I love it.” His fingers were the perfect mix of rough and sweet, and her nipples had stiffened at the slightest touch. Aspen pressed her into the pillow, closing her eyes and savoring the sensations. It was even better than it had been that afternoon - now, there was almost no chance of being interrupted. “You _do_ remember what I said to you the first time I brought you to my room, don’t you? I said it for a reason.”

Aspen sighed dreamily, pressing her body backwards into him and feeling his hands roaming all over. Niji didn’t have the slightest idea just how often she thought of it, how she had mulled over it. She wasn’t sure why, exactly, Niji was so fixated on her, but it bothered her less and less the longer she was around him. Even with whatever treatment Nexus had claimed he’d given to Niji and his brothers, Aspen didn’t think for a second that Niji had any emotion for her beyond lust. Which, of course, she was willing to work with. “Oh, I remember.” She closed her eyes, breathing in the smell of his skin as he fondled her chest, rolling her nipples between his fingertips as she continued to grind against him. In all their fooling around, he hadn’t once tried to fuck her. She wondered if that was about to change. “Thought about it once or twice.”

“I admire your latest stunt in sneaking all the way up here and leaving my brother behind…” Niji’s mouth went to her ear, and the husky tone of his voice made her dizzy. He grasped her entire breast in his hand, and Aspen could feel that it fit perfectly against palm and curled fingers. “I have the feeling Ichiji was blindsided. But it begs the question of why you keep running from him instead of just...manipulating him.”

Aspen snorted, rolling her eyes. She did not want to think about, or talk about, Ichiji. “Sure. Manipulate your manipulative brother. That’s possible.”

“It is. Really.” To her disappointment, Niji took his hand from her top and set it on her hip, holding her tightly. “Albeit only to a small degree. Shocking that you haven’t considered it. All _you_ really need is to put the skills you already have to use...hm…”

Niji started to pull his hands back, and Aspen reached to grab at them, whining in protest. She had been fast asleep before he’d barged in and woken her up - even if she had been in the grips of a nightmare - and now he’d gotten her all wet and riled up for nothing. It wasn’t fair. 

“No no, princess.” _Again_ , she could hear his grin in his voice. “I think I’m going to give you a crash course on the finer points of how you can manipulate Ichiji first thing tomorrow...and what you want would be the _perfect_ carrot to ensure you’re a good girl for your lesson.”

Not for the first time since she’d met him - and not even for the first time that day - Aspen wanted to slap Niji upside the head. Frustrated, Aspen jerked away from him slightly, curling up and wrapping her arms around her knees as she drew them up her body. 

“Are we pouting now?” Niji was right up on her again, putting his arms around her and holding her tightly. “Brat.”

Aspen didn’t respond as she seethed internally, contemplating the excuses she would inevitably need to make in the morning when Musette would see Niji leaving her bedroom. There was a chance she’d missed their fooling around earlier in the afternoon, but she would be hard pressed to not notice Aspen and Niji having spent the night together. Feeling guilty, Aspen thought back to their earlier conversation. _“I threw a lot of shit at her earlier and didn’t even let her ask any questions.”_ It was hard not to feel bad. If anyone had a chance at understanding what she was going through, it was Musette. But then Musette would ask why Aspen didn’t just shove Ichiji through a wall or off a roof, and Aspen would have to tell her. It would horrify her. Aspen could picture how Musette would react to hearing about her essentially martyring herself. All Musette had seen was Aspen loudly - and repeatedly - proclaiming her hate for the Vinsmoke family for years, only to watch her play Perfect Fiance to one of them and plaything to another. _“I can’t imagine what she thinks of me.”_

Behind her, she felt Niji’s breathing coming slower and deeper, and his arms slackened around her slightly. He had fallen asleep quickly, and Aspen’s eyelids were beginning to droop as well. _“If it’s bad enough wondering what Musette thinks of me…”_ Aspen’s brain was becoming sluggish and sad even as she was cuddled snugly in the warm cocoon of blankets. _“I don’t want to know what Sofi thinks of me.”_

The sudden sound of glass shattering snapped Aspen fully upright in bed, heart pounding and brain fully alert. Her room was still dark, and Niji was gone. Rubbing at her eyes to wipe away the bleariness, Aspen tried to figure out what had happened. The noise was close by, that was for sure - but a quick look at her intact window, separating her from snow falling outside, ruled out her first assumption. A look around the room and her eyes settled on a thin slice of light from the bathroom, whose door had been left ajar. 

_“Am I dreaming again?”_ If that were the case, Aspen was ready this time. Quietly, she climbed out of bed, and tiptoed towards the bathroom. Inside, Aspen could hear heavy, furious breathing. Her first guess was Niji. Curious, Aspen crept up on the door, and pushed it open.

The bathroom mirror - the enormous swath of glass that took up an entire section of wall - was in shards all over the floor, with only its fragmented segments of the edges dangling precariously on the wall. In the center of it all was Niji, his back to Aspen, facing where the mirror had hung with a hand clenched tightly in a fist. For a moment, she stared impassively at his back, seeing the muscles tense as his shoulders heaved and he rocked in place. When he realized she was behind him, he spun around in shock. “Aspen.”

Aspen stared at him, confused by what she was seeing. At first, all she could register were his goggles, absent from his face and hanging from their strap around his neck. Niji’s blue hair, free from its usual outlandish styling, was hanging loose, swept to the side against his shoulder and exposing part of his face that was usually hidden. On her second glance, all she could see were his eyes. And they were stunning.

 _“I **am** asleep. I _ **_am_ ** _dreaming.”_ Nobody else’s eyes came close. His irises were an oceanic blue with patches of white interspersed like marbling. The right eye, the one hidden by both goggles and hair, was milkier and clouded than the other, but no less brilliant or beautiful. Aspen couldn’t make sense of what her brain had conjured up for her, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t appreciative of the imagination. 

“Aspen,” Niji repeated, again. No teasing, no mocking. Shaken, he looked from his fist to where the mirror had hung as Aspen stepped into the bathroom. “I…”

In a sweeping motion, Aspen pulled her hand through the air, and the broken splinters of mirror twisted off the floor like a glittering school of fish, catching the light from the ceiling and throwing it onto the walls as it whipped past Niji, twisting and settling onto the countertop and clearing her path right to him. Aspen didn’t need to fix it - it would be fixed when she woke up, obviously - she just needed it out of her way. As she drew even closer to him, she could more clearly make out the scarring enclosing both eyes. Jagged, linear scars that overlapped in places, from scalpels and other medical implements. Mottled patches of discoloration from chemical ointments. _“This doesn’t make any sense.”_ Aspen was close enough to touch him, even as he tried to stumble backwards. _“Niji can’t be blind.”_

Niji reached for the goggles, trying to pull them back up, and Aspen again swept her same hand downwards, jerking his arm hard to his side. One more sweep and he was shoved forward into her, close enough for her to smell him and feel his body heat. The panic on his face was not like him at all. She looked at the blank wall where the mirror had been, and back to him again. “It doesn’t matter.” It would be fine when she woke up. 

He opened his mouth to try and speak again, and she shook her head. Slowly, purposefully, Aspen stood on her tiptoes and put her arms around the back of his neck, pulling herself up and against him and kissing him the way she’d wished he’d kissed her before they’d fallen asleep, trying her best to communicate her frustrated longing. Niji snatched her up in his arms easily, kissing back, and Aspen could taste blood in his mouth. When she pulled back again, he was staring at her with his eyes wide in shock. Aspen gave him a small smile as she noticed one last detail - his eyes were framed in fine, black lashes almost as pretty as his sister’s.

“Come back to bed.” She took his hand and led him out of the bathroom, closing the door and switching off the light without ever touching a switch or knob. Aspen’s telekinesis was never quite so smooth when she was awake. Niji followed wordlessly - only more proof that she was dreaming.

“It’s alright,” Aspen murmured soft reassurances as they climbed back into bed, her body easily twisting in his as though it had always belonged there. “You’re alright. It’s okay.” The words felt oddly familiar and carefully chosen, but she couldn’t figure out from where she had conjured them. But they felt right, and Niji seemed to relax, and Aspen had no sooner laid her head on his chest than her eyes closed quickly, her breathing even and slow as she slipped into a dreamless sleep.


	33. KERSTIN

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- kind of like with Battur, this is a really short chapter from non core character. I like to do these when I only have a few pages left at the end of a notebook.  
> \- nothing explicitly nsfw but this is unsettling

“It’s quarter past two. It’s time to go.”

Kerstin didn’t ask any questions when she received the message through her transponder. She slipped out of bed and snuck downstairs, creeping out of the house without waking her parents or the dogs. As instructed, she brought nothing with her but the clothes on her back. Sneaking into the very center of Snøvanger was no easy task, now, not after the emergency curfew handed down from the Council. All that most people knew was there had been some incident at the palace, and people were beginning to panic. The city had been assured it was temporary, and asked to return to their homes early. No trolleys were running and all of the city’s businesses were dark as Kerstin darted into the city on foot, hugging walls and staying inside the shadows. Even the holiday lights were off, leaving only the harsh white light of the tall street lamps as the only illumination in the night.

The deeper Kerstin got in Snøvanger, the more she saw she wasn’t alone. Every street and every alley was being patrolled - some by Hoarfrost’s own men, and some by Germa’s troops. The sight of the enemy’s men casually walking the streets of the capital like it was nothing made Kerstin sick to her stomach as she watched from around the corner, waiting for an opening to run.  _ This is what we have to look forward to, if we do not act.” _

It took every last bit of luck she had to slip past them all unnoticed on her way to the rendezvous point, but Kerstin did it. She was cold and shivering by the time she arrived at the back door of the shop, snow and ice crusted in her hair and her toes numb. Even the street’s heated thoroughfares were nothing against the subzero temperatures at night. Trying to control her shaking, Kerstin slipped in the unlocked door, and met with the others who had been waiting for her. They were all dressed in black, their faces covered in flat, expressionless masks.

“Were you seen?”

“No.”

“Good.”

Kerstin removed her boots and coat, and was quickly shuffled into a back bathroom where she’d been told she was to be prepared. It was a toilet and a sink, small and clean, and a stool had been set in the very center of the room. She sat down quickly as two others crowded into the bathroom with her, brushing out her long, cornsilk-colored hair. A thick, fluffy towel was thrown over her shoulders as two sets of hands hurriedly kneaded dye from roots to ends. It was dark as pitch, and smelled like licorice and blueberries.

“Are you nervous?” One of the people working her hair nervously asked the one standing beside them. Kerstin felt slimy coldness on her scalp as more dye was squirted on.

“Nervous that the soldiers will catch us, yes.” The other person kept their voice down, but the uncertainty was clear. “A curfew like this has not happened in the kingdom in a dog’s age. I have heard nothing from those who went ahead to the palace.”

“Germa 66 dealt with them.” There was bitterness in the first voice, and Kerstin felt wet, heavy strands of hair thumping moistly against the towel as they were released. “It was a foolish endeavor to begin with. The princess was not even there.”

“Speaking of the princess…” The second voice went low and dark, and Kerstin listened intently as she, along with her stool, was pulled to the sink. She was tilted backwards as the water was turned on full blast, and the frigid water felt like needles as they began to rinse out everything they had just applied. “I heard news from the north that Princess Aspen accepted a formal marriage proposal from the heir to Germa.”

Kerstin felt as though she’d been slapped in the face as she lay awkwardly, the back of her neck pressed into the lip of the sink and her eyes fixed on the ceiling. Over and over again, she had held out hope that Princess Aspen - the  _ only _ remaining descendant of Queen Noelle, who had delivered the kingdom from Germa’s clutches almost 200 years earlier - would continue to resist. Kerstin had truly believed that Princess Aspen would break the marriage agreement that her charlatan advisor had tricked her into signing as a child. The princess had resisted so strongly, so defiantly, for so long. And now she had  _ accepted _ a marriage proposal from one of the Warmongers? It didn’t feel real.

“Impossible.” The first voice seemed to share Kerstin’s sentiment. “She would  _ never.” _

“The source was the young duchess of Åker.” There was no joy in the second’s voice as they continued to rinse Kerstin’s hair, the sound of the slow sink drain bubbling and echoing in the small room. “The princess’s closest companion. She said they’re ‘very good together’ and her royal highness was ‘speechless’ when the prince proposed.”

It made sense, then, why tonight was happening, if that was the news that had been carried to them from the north. Kerstin swallowed hard, her hands wringing together as she clutched them tightly on her lap. If they could no longer depend on Princess Aspen to break the marriage agreement with the Vinsmokes of Germa, it was clear what the only way forward was to be.

“You’re done.” The towel that had been draped over her shoulders was pulled around her wet hair and tucked into itself neatly. Kerstin’s hand went to it, supporting it on her head as she slowly got to her feet. One of her masked companions pointed at the back of the bathroom door, where a fabric bag hung on a hook. “Get changed. Everything is in the bag. No underthings.” They both left without another word, or another look at her.

Again, Kerstin did as she was bid. She left everything in a heap, shivering again as goosebumps crept across her skin. Inside the bag was a long, silvery shift dress, a deep V cutting through the chest, its fabric gossamer. It slipped over her head easily, even with the towel, and wearing it felt no different than being naked. Looking down over herself, she could see the shape of her nipples, followed by her small waist and wide hips. Kerstin couldn’t help but blush. She stared at her reflection for a moment, regarding her pale face and deep eyes, feeling both prepared and deeply anxious for what was to come.

Another was waiting for her in the front of the store. The shop windows had been draped in heavy canvas to keep any passerby from seeing what was happening within, and the only illumination was a cluster of candles, crowded together on the glass display case, wax dripping and sputtering all over. The two that had prepared her were gone, and someone else was waiting for her. Cloaked in black and wearing a large, lifelike crow’s head over their own, they sat on the floor with their back to the display case. Kerstin watched the crow turn to her as she entered.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

“Are you afraid?”

“No.”

He gestured to the counter beside him and she slowly walked to it, climbing it and sitting on its hard, cold surface with the register at her side. A hand reached for the towel wrapped around her hair and pulled it away. Her long hair, now the darkest black, spilled over narrow shoulders and small breasts. Kerstin’s breath caught as a thumb brushed over the skin on her high cheekbones.

“One last thing.” Kerstin was handed a heavy, prickly ring of bone, whitish-grey in color and thin. “Put that on.”

Kerstin set it on her head, nestling it into her hair as she sat silently, her shoulders back and her posture straight. The other stepped away, and in the shadows around her, she could hear the sound of pictures being snapped.

“ _ Real _ antlers from a bramble-antlered moose,” they explained, telling Kerstin a history lesson she already knew by heart. “That’s what Noelle Frostbane’s crown was made of.”

“I know.”

“It was the closest thing to a crown that anyone could find, immediately following her final repulsion of Germa from our kingdom. It was the only crown she ever had.”

“I know.”

When they stepped back in front of Kerstin, she could see in the flickering candlelight that they held a large, silver pitcher in their hands. She did not take her eyes off of them as they began to pour its contents over her head. It streamed over her face and down her body. It puddled beneath where she sat on the countertop, and trickled and pooled on the floor. The oil filled the air with spice and wood. Kerstin watched, wordless, as they walked away again, continuing to pour and drizzle the oil on the floor behind them on their way to the door. They pushed the door open, and she saw the crow’s head turning to her again.

“Be happy, little sister. Just as Noelle’s people pushed Germa from our kingdom once before, you will help deliver Hoarfrost from them once again. Rejoice in the role you are to play.”

The front door closed behind them with a click, and Kerstin was alone. The floor at the base of the door glowed brightly, and Kerstin watched as a river of flames slithered to meet her. It seemed to glide on the surface of the oil, blooming bright and illuminating the space around her. The cakes and cookies were visible in the display case, and the crystals in the chandeliers above glinted and sparkled in celebration.

When the flames finally reached her feet, climbing the side of the counter and licking at the hem of her dress, Kerstin’s dark green eyes watched in awe. And she smiled.


	34. NEXUS IX

“I have to go down there.” Nexus remembered, back in November, picking up birthday cupcakes for Aspen from Beurre’s. Chocolate and blueberry, the same ones she always requested - ever since she was a kid. The bakery had always looked amazing, with its chandeliers of Hoarfrost crystal and full display cases of decadent treats in every color and flavor you could imagine. He could hardly believe it was gone. “I have to go down there.”

“No.” Anja, who had interrupted an incredibly tense breakfast in the glass dining room between Nexus and his family, looked nervously over her shoulder, clearly afraid of being heard by one of them. Her typically pristine, white uniform coat was smudged with soot, and there was ash in her black hair. Around them, the hub was silent, devoid of all staffers once again, the walls and floors still bearing fire marks and impact damage from the previous day’s events. Every sound carried, with nothing around to muffle it. “The Council will no doubt appoint a private investigator to look into this. There’s nothing you could do if you went down there anyway. The entire block around the bakery has been closed down.”

She was right, and Nexus knew it. He was a scientist, he was a royal advisor (and former regent) - he was no good for investigating a crime. But he knew Anja would not have pulled him away from a breakfast with royal guests for just a fire - and he could see in her worried eyes that there was something more. In all his time in the kingdom, there had been plenty of building fires, including a fire at one of the most prestigious universities, and never once had he been pulled aside in private to speak on the matter. “What else is there?” Nexus asked Anja, patting at his breast pocket for the lighter and cigarettes that weren’t there. Beneath his clothes, the thin scratch from his attacker’s blade itched.

Immediately, Anja’s hand snaked up to her long braid, undoing it with trembling fingers and looking anywhere but at Nexus’s face. “They found a body inside.”

Worse still, Nexus could tell that still wasn’t the whole of the matter. “What else is there, Anja?” He asked, already feeling strain in his voice. It had been a very taxing few days, and already this one seemed to be just as bad.

Anja took a deep breath, pausing to pluck off loose black strands from her coat to drop them to the floor, the tiles cracked and fragmented at her feet. “There were at least two other arsons last night, under similar circumstances. One in St. Santigaard, another in Åker - and those are just the ones we know of. I anticipate more.” Trembling heavier still, Anja slipped a black-gloved hand into her coat, and pulled out two damp, unmarked envelopes. She extended them to Nexus still without meeting his eyes, and Nexus accepted them as the feeling of dread in his stomach grew. “I found those affixed to the front gate of the palace...I’m going to have to tell the Council, but...you needed to see these first.”

Taking a slow, quiet breath to brace himself, Nexus opened both envelopes, fishing out two thin stacks of photographs from inside. Each picture was damp, ruffled at the edges from the moisture, and flimsy in his hands. When he turned them over, he felt his heart seize tightly inside his chest. At first glance - _it was Aspen_ . But then he blinked, and it was not Aspen. The girl in the photo was not Aspen, but another girl clearly dummied up to look like her. Her hair was black, but not long enough. Her eyes were green, but too far apart, and not the right shade of green on top of that. None of it was _quite_ right but it was all close enough, and Nexus knew that had been the point. The photo was poorly lit, with a handful of candles mostly out of frame, but he could see a dessert case to the side of the subject, and a menu board on the wall behind. This was the body that had been found in Beurre’s. He knew it.

The second stack was the same nightmare again, in three damp frames. Same premise as the first stack, but with a different girl. Black hair, green eyes, a loop of antlers as a crown, and some sort of thin, silvery ceremonial gown that left little to the imagination. Nexus felt like he had been encased in ice, unable to do more than hold the photos in his hand and stare at them. The smiles were frozen, the shoulders stiff, leaving a uniquely unnerving sense of terror exuding from the photos. Nexus, using all his power to force his arm to move, turned the envelopes over. As he suspected, there was no name, no return address, nothing.

Anja, who had finished re-braiding her hair, began undoing it all over again. “I have to report this back to the Council.”

“I know.” He knew this was the work of the cultists, those supposed ‘Servants of the Silver Queen.’ Nexus thought vainly back to when they had left the dead birds in a grotesque display as their calling card, and wished he could hit himself. That would have been the time to deal with them - before they had the chance to escalate. It had been exceedingly foolish of him to imagine everything was under control for even a fraction of a second. Once the Council was alerted, Nexus knew how they would want to proceed. “I imagine...they’re going to want to recall Aspen from Neigebelle, in light of this.” 

It seemed the most likely next step, and Anja nervously nodded in agreement. Nexus had half a mind to walk away right then, to find the closest transponder and scream into it that she needed to come home immediately - and bring the others with her. The cultists had been more than violent before - one needed only to look at Altest and Drammen for proof - but this had been perfectly targeted at Aspen. Nexus knew a threat when he saw one. Wordlessly, he handed the photos and their envelopes back to Anja. This was escalation - very sharp escalation, was a tightened focus rather than wanton violence. Something had set them off, and he couldn’t think of what. Had it been the trip to Neigebelle?

“Anja.”

“Yes?” Anja tucked the photos back into their envelopes, turning her head to avoid looking at the girls, and put them back in her jacket. Finally, she looked at Nexus, her wide eyes steeped in anxiety. “Nexus?”

“Those girls were both wearing the same...dress thing.” Something made the hair on the back of Nexus’s neck stand up, and he turned his head just enough to glance over his shoulder. Behind him, the dining room door was silently opening, swinging into the dining room. He had closed it behind them when they’d stepped out. “Thin. Silver. Ah...revealing. Is that a special sort of dress?”

Anja bit her bottom lip, a light flush blooming on her pale cheeks. “Yes, actually, it’s a specific kind of - well - you see - it’s, well...it’s for royal brides to wear...on their wedding night. When they’re...presenting themselves to their new husbands. You understand.” By the time she’d finished stumbling and stuttering, her face was boiling red from the implication.

 _“Again, this is about Ichiji and Aspen’s marriage arrangement.”_ Nexus couldn't help feeling exasperated. It did not make _sense_ , that sort of rapid upturn in aggression, over the same longstanding contract. What was more, the kingdom proper was still unaware that a formal marriage proposal had taken place: Nexus, Judge, and the Council had come to a tepid agreement, shortly after Ichiji had proposed, to postpone the formal announcement until such a time that Hoarfrost’s military could bring the situation with the rebels under control. Judge, of course, had _hated_ it. He had waited years for a chance to crow about his eldest son and heir finally being _officially_ engaged into one of the North Blue’s most respected royal families, and now he had to wait even longer. _“But maybe after yesterday, he understands the need to tread lightly.”_

“Are you okay, Nexus?”

Nexus, not realizing he’d gotten so lost in his thoughts, quickly snapped back to reality. “I guess I’m as okay as I’m going to get.” He forced a tired smile at Anja. “Thank you for -”

“No, I mean like…” Anja gestured at the ruined hub around them. The great chandelier was cracked and massively damaged, most of its many lights remaining dark, and the skylight above had sustained massive blows that left cracks to spiderweb through it. There was still a faint, choking smell in the air from the poison Reiju had used in the fighting, and several long swaths of wall had burned black. A single fight, and so much of the hub’s opulence had been sullied and broken. “ _Are you okay?_ After yesterday...what happened with those people...Thank god Aspen wasn’t here for that.”

The more Nexus thought about it, the more he agreed with the sentiment - but for different reasons than most. If Aspen had been attacked, as he had been, she would’ve attacked back immediately - and it had been a disservice to her to have thought otherwise, as he had. Aspen would have attacked back in the way she knew best, and Nexus still wanted to keep that little secret under wraps. As far as he knew, his family did not know. It hadn’t come up during his conversation with Judge the night before, and Nexus had an inkling that the boys would have delivered such crucial information directly to their father if they knew.

Secondly, if Aspen had stumbled across him after he’d been attacked - virtually unharmed, clothes in tattered, dead body at his feet - she would’ve had several valid and uncomfortable questions. Ones Nexus _still_ did not feel ready to answer.

“I’m okay,” Nexus calmly assured Anja, not precisely lying. Beneath his suit, again the scratch itched. “Our guests from Germa put down the trespassers quickly, before the damage could mount. We got lucky.”

That part was a lie - even from the early days of Germa 66’s current iteration, avoiding property damage had never been a priority. The hub was in terribly sad shape. 

Anja looked disbelieving. “Nexus, people broke into the palace and tried to _kill_ you.”

“And the Vinsmokes saved me.” The lie burned Nexus, but there was no sense at all in telling Anja more than she needed to know. Cold wind whistled through the cracks in the skylight, and Nexus pulled his lab coat around himself tightly with a shiver. “Hurry and get these photos to the Council. Assure them that I will do my utmost to sort things with Princess Aspen.”

Swallowing whatever follow-up question had been on the tip of her tongue, Anja turned to leave, the clicking of her boots on the tile the only sound in the dead silent hub. Nexus still had seen no staff, and did not expect to. They were all back to making themselves scarce, no longer feeling safe in their own home. Nexus could hardly blame them, and was surprised he hadn’t yet heard of mass resignations. _“If I had taken the threat seriously when Gogo first approached me about it…”_ Nexus thought to himself as he turned back to the dining room, not in any way interested in finishing his breakfast or facing his family. _“But no. There was no fixing anything back then anyway.”_ Gogo had a plan back then, for certain, and it was still as distasteful to him as ever.

Coming back through the door, Nexus nearly collided directly into Judge, who had been waiting just out of sight on the other side. Before Nexus could fumble for a lie, or snap at him to _get the hell away from me_ , Judge closed the door and pointed a hand at the table - the long table, completely empty aside from Ichiji and Reiju, who turned to see what was going on. “Sit down. Please.”

The ‘please’ disarmed Nexus, causing the furious complaint he had readied to stick fast in his throat. He quietly walked back to his seat, the smell of his unfinished eggs and sausages now making him feel ill instead of hungry. Judge had not said please to him in nearly twenty years - it was an ominous feeling Nexus did not like at all. They had scarcely come to an agreement on the cultists not even 12 hours before, and already Nexus was beginning to second-guess his choices.

Judge sat down as well, taking the seat directly across from Nexus, slightly down the table from his children. His helmet was missing, and for the first time, Nexus could see age in his brother-in-law’s face. There were fine lines under his eyes, and his hairline was dotted with grey. All the same, his eyes were as hard as ever. He cleared his throat, and both Reiju and Ichiji turned to their father. “So those bird people from yesterday learned nothing.”

“It would seem that way.” Nexus shifted uncomfortably in his hard seat, wishing he had an idea just how much Judge had overheard. He did not trust him any more than before, but if Nexus was caught withholding information at this juncture...there would be problems. Nexus needed to tread carefully. At the thought of it all, he felt a small headache beginning to grow directly behind his eyes. “They set fires - one here, others in cities further to the north. I’m anticipating learning of more, and soon.”

Ichiji shrugged, picking up his glass and taking a drink. “Arson isn’t my problem.”

“If father is bringing this to our attention,” Reiju’s voice was calm, but there was no mistaking the rebuke. “I think we can assume it is quite a bit more than just _arson.”_

Frowning, Ichiji fell silent, and Nexus watched as he slowly glanced to his right - to the seat typically reserved for Aspen. When he realized it was empty (of course), he jerked his head back to his father, looking embarrassed. 

Nexus couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow - it was perhaps the most _human_ action he’d seen from his nephew yet. _“Odd.”_ He showed no other sign of having noticed, and continued talking. “As Reiju suggested, yes, it is more than arson. A body was recovered from the fire in the city. I have no doubt there will be others.”

Reiju’s face creased in concern, and she set her knife and fork down. “You’re certain there will be multiple bodies?”

“We’ve already been sent photos of the victims - taken before the fire, though?” Judge asked Nexus hastily for clarification as Reiju’s blue eyes went full and round.

“Alive, yes. Definitely before the fire.” When was the last time he had sat with his family in such a way, sitting and talking business like this? Reiju had been less than a year old, by Nexus’s recollection - so a good bit of time ago. Yet the back and forth talk, coordinating together, still came so naturally to him. “A member of the royal guard is alerting the Council of the photos.”

“Who were the victims?” Ichiji looked bored, elbows on the table as he poked at his unfinished breakfast with a fork. It was _decidedly_ un-royal behavior, for him, but there was something loose and relaxed in how he was carrying himself. He glanced at Nexus for an explanation. “Nobility, famed researchers, Marine...anything like that? Important, rich, both?”

Judge, faced with a question he hadn’t caught the answer to while eavesdropping, turned to Nexus, who couldn’t work out how to answer. He and Anja were the only ones who had seen the photos - and if Judge was made aware that the victims had been dressed up as his future daughter-in-law, the key to Germa’s acquisition of Hoarfrost, prior to being burned alive, Nexus suspected that Aspen would never again have a free moment alone. “From what I can gather, they were all young girls,” Nexus answered slowly, choosing every word carefully. “They were wearing the gown that royal brides wear for their husbands on their wedding night.”

Ichiji erupted into a loud fit of coughing, the mimosa he had been sipping at dropping from his hand and spilling onto the floor. Nexus, Judge, and Reiju all turned to stare as he tried to recover, wiping tears from his eyes and lightly pounding his fist into his chest. After a few moments, he cleared his throat, his face slightly flushed. “You said there are photos of that? I need to see them.”

Silence.

“For...research purposes.”

Judge was not fooled and, for once, not impressed with his eldest son. His dark blue eyes narrowed in distaste as he glared at Ichiji. “You’ll see that gown when you marry Princess Aspen and not a moment before,” Judge answered sharply, slamming a fist down onto the table and shaking everyone’s plates. He looked back to Nexus, crossing his arms as he leaned back in his seat. “They’re angry about the marriage arrangement, if that’s the case.”

Nexus thought back to the photos, and felt as though cold water were being poured down his back. The girls in the photos had one more thing in common, something crucial he had overlooked - both had been smiling, radiant, shoulders back and chins up. Nexus had not seen a single sign of any bindings. Those girls had gone willingly, likely fully aware of what was to come following their photos being taken. “As I...explained to you before,” Nexus started, trying to talk despite the chilled feeling overcoming his body. “The marriage arrangement -”

“These backward, ungrateful traitors will be the ones burning when I’m king,” Ichiji mumbled, almost inaudibly, as he went back to poking his food.

“We need to summon the princess back.” Judge ignored Ichiji, again looking at Nexus with an expectant look on his face. Nexus was not surprised that he’d come to the same conclusion as everyone else. “Here, we can close ranks around her.”

Nexus shook his head as he thought to himself, his greying blonde hair flopping into his eyes. He was overdue for a haircut - he just had not had the time. “The Council will agree with you, and want the same - but Aspen will resist. Trust me, I know her,” Nexus quickly added when he saw Judge starting to speak again. “She won’t think this is some great threat. She thinks she’s invincible just like every other young person.”

“Could we go to her?” Reiju asked thoughtfully, tapping a finger at her chin. “I know she issued an order regarding when we’re allowed to follow...but things have changed quite a bit in such a small window of time. It may be best to ask her directly.”

Ichiji stood up. “I’ll do it.”

“ _No,”_ Judge and Reiju answered at the same time.

Nexus said nothing, observing his nephew with a raised eyebrow. His family had been in the kingdom for over a month, and he had picked up on a maximum of three (maybe four) sentences and two facial expressions from Ichiji for that entire window of time. Most of the time, he eldest nephew opted not to say a word - and now, in one sitting, Nexus had heard more from him than he thought Ichiji capable of. It was odd - to say the absolute least. Unconsciously, Nexus’s gaze moved from Ichiji to Reiju, who held eye contact and gave a pointed nod at her brother. She punctuated it with a wink.

Now it was Nexus’s turn for his eyes to go wide as he realized her meaning. _The treatment for Ichiji_. The events from yesterday had completely driven it from his mind. Reiju had gone and retrieved the medicine from the lab - had she already given it to him? “Actually,” Nexus quickly jumped in, cutting off Ichiji, who had looked ready to argue. “It could be a good idea to have him be the one to call her. Even if Aspen is unwilling, it may be a good gesture that he is checking in out of concern.” Nexus’s jaw ached as he imagined how hard Aspen would slap him if she could hear him.

In short order - and fueled by the anticipation of overhearing Ichiji’s interactions with Aspen post-treatment - Nexus managed to shepherd away both Judge and Reiju, offering both promises to speak at length later, in private. Nexus gave Ichiji his own transponder - a replacement for the one he had broken yesterday - and had left him alone in the dining room, closing the door behind him once again. Nexus waited just outside the door, listening closely.

 _“If he’s been mistreating her, I’ll overhear something,”_ Nexus reasoned, grateful for an opportunity to overhear what both Aspen and Ichiji would think is a private conversation. He wasn’t stupid enough to believe the front Aspen put on when others were around, and Reiju, Sofi, and Musette had given him reason enough to be suspicious of the relationship. _“If there’s something wrong, this is my chance to figure out what.”_

“Sweetling.” At the sound of Ichiji’s voice, Nexus’s brain muted itself completely. His voice was soft, and muffled by the door. Nexus strained to listen as he stood in place, back against the wall, unwilling to press an ear to the door. “You left without saying goodbye.”

To Nexus’s astonishment, he heard Aspen giggle in response. “You left in _such_ a hurry yourself. I didn’t have any time.”

“There was time.” Ichiji did not sound happy.

“Time? Hmm. I seem to recall you keeping me busy between us finishing with dinner and you leaving me so abruptly.” With another small laugh, Aspen’s voice dropped to a breathy whisper. “Are you planning on punishing me for it when you see me again?”

Nexus felt his face burning, and he wished he had not remained behind to listen as he stood firmly in place. At least there was nobody else around to overhear. A vague memory of a past conversation with Aspen surfaced in his head, and Nexus could hear her telling him, _“it’s role-playing.”_

A painful urge to cough burned at his throat, and Nexus fought to keep it down.

For a moment, it appeared as though even Ichiji had no idea how to respond - though Nexus could hear him breathing. “That...depends on how you act moving forward, sweetling.”

“ _Does it?_ Ah...would it help if I told you how much I miss the taste of your -”

Nexus clapped his hands over his ears, fully aware of the mental image he would now never be able to drive from his brain. It was something he never, ever wanted to see or hear and now he would have it in his nightmares. Somehow, they had all been wrong. Reiju, Musette, Sofi, and himself. Aspen and Ichiji appeared to be getting on exceptionally well - perhaps more than Nexus was really comfortable with. Gogo would gloat if she knew, and wouldn’t resist the urge to rub it in his face. Nexus could not describe his relief - all this time, he had been worrying about her, trying to get a read on what was wrong - and nothing had been wrong all along.

After several minutes of keeping his hands tightly sealed over his ears, Nexus slowly moved one hand away, risking his sanity for part of the conversation.

“...Almost sounds like you’re worried about me...too bad I know that isn’t possible.” Nexus wasn’t sure what Ichiji had told Aspen, but she sounded completely unconcerned. “You don’t care.”

“No. I don’t.”

“Hm. Tomorrow, then.” Aspen dropped her seductive, playful whisper, and her normal, vaguely irritated voice took over as she got down to the details. “Come early. We can make a thing of it for any locals who notice, if I decide to greet you at the station. It can be spun as you being so worried, you _had_ to rush to me. It’ll make you...more palatable, to the less radical people on this frozen wasteland of an island.”

 _That_ caught Nexus’s attention. It was well thought out, to be sure, something Aspen was capable of even if she chose not to do it most times. Something was not quite right about her answer to Ichiji, and it scratched at Nexus. He brushed it off, chalking it up to nerves and overthinking everything due to stress. _“It’s nothing to nitpick over.”_

“ _If_ you decide to come greet me?” Ichiji sounded quietly amused, with the slightest touch of danger to his voice.

“Yes. _If.”_

“Fine. Let me talk to Niji.”

Aspen laughed, and Nexus listened hard. He had suspected that Niji had followed them, and this was a chance to confirm those suspicions. “ _Niji?_ We have _Yonji_ , but I’m afraid -”

“I know he’s there.”

Aspen let out a loud, disappointed sigh. “You’re never much fun, are you? I’ll go get him. Did you want to talk to me again afterwards?”

 _“I knew it,”_ Nexus thought.

“No.”

“Alright.”

There was another pause as Aspen went to fetch Niji. Nexus’s brain whirred back to life in the silence, combing over everything he’d heard. At first listen, it appeared that Ichiji and Aspen were doing very well together - and Nexus could not remember having ever felt such relief. But beneath the relief, doubt was jabbing at him. Had Ichiji had pathway deficiency syndrome to begin with at all, or had it simply not impacted his relationship with Aspen? 

That raised even more questions. If they were doing so well, why had there been so many instances of Aspen running off to get away from him? Why did it always seem, however faintly so, that Aspen was intimidated by Ichiji? _“This is all assuming that Reiju_ **_did_ ** _slip him the treatment from Corte,”_ Nexus thought to himself, the name of his now-former assistant triggering a pang of sadness and anxiety. _“I didn’t confirm that yet. I wonder if that will change -”_

“Don’t repeat this.” Ichiji spoke up again suddenly, voice oddly hesitant and even more quiet than before. “It’s...strange. Not having you here. Sweetling.”

“What did you just say?” Niji’s voice answered back, and Nexus could practically _hear_ the grin on his nephew’s face. “Are you saying you _miss me?_ When did you turn into Sanji?”

The mental whiplash disarmed Nexus. _“Did Ichiji just imply he misses Aspen?”_

“I wasn’t _talking to you,”_ Ichiji answered, his voice icy. “Things have changed. I’m coming up tomorrow. Just me.”

Niji laughed loudly. “Oh, lucky Aspen. Are you telling me you want me to keep her warm until you get here?”

“You wouldn’t dare.” Ichiji’s voice was dangerous again, and his brother’s laughing died away. “I’m telling you not to let her out of your sight until I get there. Whatever the reason, find an excuse to keep her close.” He paused again, and cleared his throat. “She’s the key to this kingdom, and should something happen to her -”

Sighing, Niji interrupted. “Yes, you sound like father. No worries...she’s in _good hands_.”

Nexus listened intently, hoping for more as he leaned closer to the door. The door swung open unexpectedly, slamming Nexus hard in the face and sending him staggering sideways. Ichiji walked out, transponder in hand, tossing it to Nexus without so much as a glance. “I’m to arrive up north tomorrow. She didn’t say anything about permitting you or the others...so I would assume you still have to wait.” He brushed his red hair from his face with a smirk as he turned to walk away, cape at his back.

“You trust Niji with Aspen? Just a few weeks ago, you were accusing him of absconding with her.” That was something Nexus happened to believe was true, but he did not add that in as he walked behind his nephew. “There is a real danger presenting itself, and -”

Ichiji stopped, holding up a hand, still not turning to look at Nexus. “That was then. I currently have no reason to suspect Niji. My decision has nothing to do with _trust_ , Uncle, though your concern for my future wife is...precious.” He started walking again, cape trailing, looking like the picture of elegance in the battered hub. “Niji is bound to my commands. He’d die before violating an order, and it’s always been his duty to provide me intel. He has never led me wrong, not once. And...I believe you have someone who needs to speak to you.”

Confused, Nexus turned around, and saw Wintergreen heading his way. Her doctor’s coat was pulled over her shoulders, and her head was bowed. The sight of his wife in such a way made Nexus’s heart sink - with that posture, he knew it could only be bad news. Without a backwards glance at his nephew, or acknowledgement that Ichiji had called him ‘uncle,’ Nexus ran to meet Wintergreen.

“Do you have a moment?” Wintergreen raised her head and smiled at Nexus as he drew close. The smile did not reach her usually warm brown eyes, which looked tired and worried. “I know you’re the busiest man in the palace.”

“I have all the time in the world for -” 

His words died in his throat as she extended an arm out to him, stopping in place. Her skin was warm and peachy where she’d rolled her sleeve up, the same arms that embraced him every night for the last 15 years, arms Nexus loved. Just above her elbow was a blotch of the starkest white, eerily bright against the rest of her skin, and wrapped almost completely around her arm. Another similar blotch was forming at her wrist, and when Nexus looked up to make eye contact with her, he could see another on her neck. She’d had similar blotches when he’d first met her and he had made them all go away. That had been back when he had first met her - she was only an assistant medical specialist on the palace health team, bright and gifted, and he was...nothing.

“I think,” Wintergreen spoke gently, a smile on her lips as tears formed in her eyes. “You did all you could and I got longer than anyone expected. We need to talk about this, Nexus. Not tonight, not tomorrow. Now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- It's exactly what you think it is.


	35. MUSETTE IX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- nothing explicit but there is some upsetting subject matter re: child abuse

“No.”

“What do you mean, ‘no?’”

Yonji sat shirtless on the edge of their bed, black pants undone and still holding his socks in his hands. His messy green hair was twisted in every imaginable direction, and Musette wasn’t confident he was fully awake just yet. Frowning, he gestured to her, indicating her staff dress that she had automatically pulled back on after getting up. “No. That dress is a no. You wear it all the time. This is supposed to be a  _ vacation _ \- your friend, the princess, that’s what she said. Get rid of the uniform.”

Musette sighed as she turned to her bag, sitting on top of their dresser. The few non-uniform items of clothing she owned were all inside, and she knew full well that Yonji was not going to like any of them. Most of them were castoffs from her mother, or gifts from Sofi that didn’t  _ quite _ suit her. At least her staff dress was flattering, due to the liberties Stitch had taken in tailoring it for her. “I’m telling you now,” Musette warned, pulling her dress up and over her head as Yonji made a delighted noise behind her. “You’re not going to be any happier with anything else I have.”

Yonji laughed. “I doubt that.”

An hour later, Musette found herself back in her staff dress and winter coat, being pulled out of the chateau and into Neigebelle by a very frustrated Yonji. They had slept in late as it was, and Musette hadn’t caught sight of either Niji or Aspen before being pulled right out the door. The streets were packed before them with what seemed like every tourist who wasn’t out on the slopes surrounding the town, hauling multicolored shopping bags or munching on all sorts of scrumptious food from all the different food carts that were spaced all down the road. The air smelled heavenly, and Musette closed her eyes as she soaked it in.

Yonji plowed right into all of them, oblivious to the foot traffic flow, and Musette gripped hard onto the sleeve of his dark green coat to keep from getting separated. There was no point in being embarrassed - she’d grown used to be gawked at by strangers while Yonji did whatever he pleased. “Yonji,” she asked gently, after they abruptly cut in front of an entire family, causing two of the children to slosh their soup cups all over themselves. One of the children burst into tears, and their parents shot a dirty look at Yonji’s back. “Do you even know where we’re going?”

“To get you better clothes.”

Immediately, Musette felt as though her skin were being needled, and she squeezed Yonji’s sleeve tightly, slowing her pace in an attempt to slow him down as well. Far stronger than her, Yonji didn’t notice at all, and Musette quickly resumed her regular walk to avoid being dragged behind him on the cobblestones. She had  _ never _ gone clothes shopping, not for herself anyway, and the thought of it made her stomach twitch and roil. On top of that, she had very little money on her, and she could tell from the highly-decorated storefronts and chic clothing she saw on display that Neigebelle’s boutiques were more than out of her price range. “Yonji,” Musette whined, figuring she may as well try to talk him out of it, for all the good it would do, right as he spotted a clothing shop he liked on the corner and began dragging her towards it. “I don’t exactly have the money for this.”

“I do. If you’re going to be in my company for this vacation, you need to look at least half as hot as you are.” He shouldered open the door of the shop as Musette’s cheeks turned pink at the compliment. As they stepped in, Musette inhaled a strong scent of freesia and lilac, florals that seemed out of place in their winterscape - but perfectly suitable for the soft cottage-like atmosphere of the boutique. The walls were whitewashed brick, with small paintings hung in tiny frames, and tiny delicate light fixtures hung down from the ceiling, suspended only a few feet above the thin clothing racks. To Musette’s relief, the place was next to empty, aside from them and the shopkeeper, who sat at the back counter reading a magazine. At least this meant there wouldn’t be witnesses to her profound humiliation. 

Yonji continued talking. “I mean, now that I’ve seen you naked, I  _ know _ that -”

“Okay, okay, okay!!!” Musette let go of Yonji’s sleeve as quickly as she could, nervously looking to make sure they hadn’t been overheard. If the shopkeeper had heard any of it, they were wise enough not to acknowledge them or look away from their magazine, boredly turning another page. Musette sighed anxiously, hand tangling in her long, loose hair as she looked at the racks around them. She could see shapes of cream, chocolate, and dark greens, small florals and delicate lace - along with thick knit sweaters and pretty skirts. While the palette and styles she could see were intriguing, Musette felt her pulse beginning to race. “I...will look. And I’ll...let you know, I guess.”

Yonji didn’t follow, taking a seat on a white-painted wooden bench just beside the door, angled towards the giant display window. She watched his eyes go wide and round at the sight of the busty mannequins and she left him to it, rolling her eyes.

Slowly wandering through the clothes, Musette could tell that this style was something different from what Sofi or Aspen favored, and she conceded it would look nice on her. There was nothing too revealing or too flashy, favoring neutral colors and more simple cuts. Heart pounding in her chest, Musette hesitantly picked up a cream colored blouse with long sleeves edged in lace. When she saw the price tag, she threw it back as though it were on fire.

Unfortunately, Yonji saw. “If you put anything back,” he called to her. “I’m just going to grab it before we leave.”

Musette grimaced. Of  _ course _ . Growing more uncomfortable with every passing moment and beginning to find even the floral scent suffocating, she quickly shuffled through the racks, barely sparing any clothing item a glance beyond checking the size tags. The sooner she could leave, the happier she’d be. Musette picked up a few items that she hoped weren’t too expensive, trying to keep her selections as low-key as possible. She leaned towards the cream and beige options, throwing in a skirt and cardigan in a deep forest green - to please Yonji, as she knew he would be. At the end, she had two skirts, two tops, and two sweaters, certainly more than enough. As apprehensive as she was about the whole thing, Musette  _ was _ pleased with her choices.  _ “I’ve never had anything cute like these,”  _ she thought to herself, unsure whether to be happy or not as she made her way back to Yonji.  _ “Maybe...it could be nice.” _

Yonji looked at the small pile of clothes in her arms and gave her a strange look, furrowing his brow.

“I can put it back,” Musette quickly assured him, feeling her face go red. “It’s no big deal, really, I don’t care -”   


“This isn’t  _ anywhere _ near enough.” Yonji’s irritated response confused Musette, stopping her nervous reassurances dead in their tracks. She stared at him with what she was sure was a dumb look on her face, her mouth opening and closing over and over. Yonji stood up and took Musette’s clothes from her, holding everything in the crook of one arm as he made his way to the back counter where the shopkeeper was eyeing him. His broad frame slammed into the small metal racks as he passed, knocking them sideways and leaving the hangers shaking. 

He dropped the clothes onto the counter, and Musette could see the shopkeeper slowly setting their magazine down, watching Yonji apprehensively as he towered over them. Musette contemplated rushing after him, the memory of the first time she’d taken him to a store clear in her mind. “Behave,” Musette muttered under her breath, ready to dart in his direction if things took a sour turn. “Please behave…”

“You.” Musette heard Yonji demand, his voice firm and his shoulders squared back. “Uh...I need you to pick out more clothes like these. In the same size and style. And...throw in more green.  _ Please. _ ”

45 minutes later they were back outside, snow falling steadily onto them, Musette dressed in completely new clothes that felt like butter on her skin. Yonji had insisted she change before they left, and Musette had changed into a casual dress with tiny green flowers patterned all over, with soft sleeves edged in lace around her wrists. Her tights were thick and warm, and she was wrapped in a bell-shaped winter coat the same shade of green as Yonji’s. Musette had never owned anything so nice before in her life, and she didn’t dare look at the price tags. Most surprisingly of all, it was all modest and sweetly feminine - something she hadn’t thought Yonji would be interested in.

“Thank you for not insisting on more revealing clothes,” Musette commented as she trailed behind him, her gloved fingers laced with his as they wandered through more swarms of tourists, assailed on every side by holiday lights, mouthwatering smells, and loud chatter from the people passing by. Musette saw more and more people lugging skis and snowboards with them, likely on the hunt for food after a day on the slopes.

Yonji let out a loud sigh as he looked over his shoulder at Musette, his hand adjusting the mountain of bags he held at his back. “Just because  _ I _ drool over you doesn’t mean I want  _ other _ people drooling over you.” He paused for a moment, looking pensively at the sky, before grumpily adding, “ _ like my brothers.” _

Musette couldn’t really argue with that. It was certainly fair enough, coming from him. They continued to wander as it snowed down onto them, passing more food carts and even more people carrying food. Each time they saw another person chowing down on something delicious - soup, a hot sandwich, some kind of cooked meat - Yonji stopped dead in his tracks, looking at the food with his mouth hanging open. When they finally passed a cart with small fondue pots, offering a variety of breads, vegetables, and more for dunking, Yonji finally caved in, pushing his way to the front of the line.

“You can’t do that!” Musette squealed, feeling the familiar embarrassment she was used to feeling when out in public with an oblivious Yonji. “You can’t just cut in line!”

“Go find somewhere for us to sit,” he said, letting go of her hand and waving her off as he continued moving past the people in line as though they weren’t there. Musette hurried away as the angry people turned their gaze to her, dropping her head as she burned hot. 

_ “I’ve never met anyone with a weaker grasp of basic manners,” _ Musette thought, exasperated as she dropped down onto an empty bench just a few feet away from the food cart. The moment she sat down, she could tell it was heated just as the roads were, but the melted snow was damp and unpleasant as it soaked into her clothes. She leaned back, tilting her head towards the sky, which was slowly beginning to transition into dusk behind the heavy grey clouds. Above her, a reindeer shaped in tinsel dangled off the lamp post, twinkling in the light as it twisted in the snowy wind. Musette watched, distracted, and began quietly singing a holiday song she had heard in passing. “Snow mounds at windows, a chill is in the air…”

“You’re singing.”

Musette nearly shrieked as Yonji reappeared beside her, carrying a small tray with a fondue pot full of melted cheese and several piles of dippables. He sat down with a smile on his face and handed her a skewer, dropping the shopping bags at their feet.

“Did you need to cut in front of everyone in line?” Musette snapped, hoping to quickly change the subject before Yonji could latch onto her singing. Despite her disapproval, she wasted no time in spearing a large chunk of bread and dunking it into the cheese. “That was rude and completely unnecessary.”

“Royals follow their own set of rules,” Yonji explained, shrugging as he stuffed his mouth full of cheesy potatoes until his cheeks bulged. He seemed completely disinterested in discussing his behavior at the cart, but he was eyeing Musette with a knowing look on his face. She knew he wasn’t going to drop having heard her singing. “It’s always been like that. Ask your black-haired friend. But anyway -”

“Who told you something like that?” Musette interrupted him, swallowing her bread and feeling the warmth spread from her fingertips to her toes. The cheese was rich and wonderfully creamy, with a slightly nutty taste. “It’s true, to a degree, but it shouldn’t be used as an excuse to step all over regular people.”

Yonji laughed, again, and Musette could feel herself getting even more red-faced and indignant. “No one  _ told _ me. It’s just common knowledge.”

_ “Baby steps,” _ Musette assured herself, leaning against Yonji as she poked a broccoli floret onto her skewer and dipped that in the cheese.  _ “You got him to start holding doors for people and saying please, you can work up to not cutting in line.” _

Scarfing down another several chunks of cheese-smothered food, Yonji glanced down at Musette as she laid her head on his chest. “I haven’t forgotten about hearing you singing. Despite your  _ terrible _ attempt at changing the subject.”

Musette looked away, blushing even darker as an uneasy feeling bloomed in her stomach. So they were going to talk about that, huh? “Yeah, you heard me singing,” Musette agreed, her voice low and unhappy. “You can die happy now, I’m sure.”

“Why are you so weird about it? I didn’t hear much but it sounded good.”

“I  _ am _ good at it. That’s the problem.” Musette glanced up at him, face as blank as she could manage, and saw Yonji’s face cloud with confusion.

“Why?”

Musette sighed, feeling her lungs burn with the exhale. There was nothing she wanted more than to get up, leave Yonji on the bench, and go sit somewhere where she could be alone for a while. But she couldn’t do that - and something gnawed at her to talk about it, something that branched from her lungs and her stomach out to all four of her limbs. She never talked about it. Not even to Sofi or Aspen. “Do you remember the first day we met? You asked me where I was from.”

“Mariejois.”

She hadn’t expected Yonji to remember, and his immediate answer disarmed her. “I...yes, I’m from Mariejois. Who lives in Mariejois?”

Yonji’s brow furrowed again, and she could tell he was perplexed by her line of questioning. “The Celestial Dragons.”

“And their slaves.” There was more emotion in the last word than Musette had meant to imbue, all bitterness, rage, and hatred. Beneath her new clothes, her comfortable and pretty clothes, Musette felt her skin beginning to itch and crawl. She moved to wrap her arms around herself and found Yonji draping an arm around her, holding her tightly against him. “The Celestial Dragons and their slaves.”

Yonji said nothing in response. Musette stole a glance up at him and her eyes went to his quickly, blue on blue. They didn’t leave hers, not for the briefest instant, but Musette couldn’t decipher the look he was giving her. 

Taking a deep breath, and looking away again, she continued. “I was...born a slave. My mother was a slave wife, so. Well. When they realized I could sing as well as I do, they started demanding I do it on command.” Even talking about it brought the memories to the forefront. She could feel the weight of the collar, tight on her neck and heavy on her shoulders, and could remember the cold sweat she had constantly been soaked in, from the time she woke up until the time she passed out at night. “I was a child. And...as children do, I began refusing. Nobody refuses a Celestial Dragon.”

Musette had wanted to stay away from the other memories, but those rose to the forefront of her mind as well as she sat there, snowflakes sprinkled in her golden hair, Yonji’s fingers digging tightly into her upper arm as he held her tighter and tighter to his chest. There were other ways she’d been used for the amusement of the Celestial Dragons when she refused to sing. She’d thought back to  _ those _ memories recently as well, in the kitchens with Crema that time. Yonji didn’t need to know about those. Musette didn’t think she could talk about those without crying.

Without saying a word, Yonji picked up the largest piece of bread on their tray, dunking it by hand into the cheese and turning it to coat most of its surface. He pulled it back out, letting the excess drip off, and brought it to Musette’s lips. She accepted without protest, chewing slowly to take a break from thinking. 

“That’s...it, really,” Musette tried to give Yonji a smile as she pushed loose hair from her face, but the corners of her mouth wouldn’t budge. “I love singing. I love it. But I can’t do it for other people.” She thought back to Aspen’s birthday, and quickly corrected herself. “I can’t do it if I’m the only one, I mean. I always kinda wanted to get past that. Maybe do something with singing, with my life. My mother hates it. She’s pushed me to do cooking like she does.” Even that was more than Musette wanted to share, and she’d shared it with  _ Yonji _ , of all people. These were things she hadn’t had the nerve to divulge to Aspen or Sofi, even in their decade of friendship. Musette couldn’t help but feel slightly ashamed, wringing her hands together as she sat there, feeling the heavy silence hanging over them.

“I’ve disobeyed too,” Yonji volunteered suddenly, handing Musette a small potato dipped in cheese as he looked out over the busy road, clogged with tourists and coming fully to life in the dark, holiday lights glowing at every window. He scratched at the back of his head, tousling his green hair absently, and Musette’s eyes followed the movement of his fingers. “Not to the level of a Celestial Dragon, though. Just my father.”

Relieved that Yonji had not asked any questions  _ and _ had moved the focus of the conversation from her, Musette’s feeling of dread slowly began to abate. She rested more easily against Yonji and dipped a piece of pepper into the cheese, bringing it up to his mouth as he’d done for her. While not a Celestial Dragon, Yonji’s father did seem to be a frightening man to cross. “Was it a big deal?” It felt dumb, phrased in such a way.

“Kinda?” Yonji’s confusion was back, and he closed his eyes for a moment as he looked up at the clouds. “For starters, I’m not supposed to be able to disobey him at all. Reiju, Ichiji, and Niji have always been compelled to obey him without question, but never me. Me or  _ Sanji.” _

It was hard to miss the derision Yonji put on his older brother’s name. Musette said nothing about it - Sanji could be a conversation for another time. “Is that...part of the modifications he did to you and your siblings?” She had remembered Nexus talking about it, to her, Aspen, and Sofi. “How did you figure out that you could disobey?”

“Yeah, it was supposed to be. And...I disobeyed. Small things, at first. Sneaking out of my room at night, stealing snacks from the kitchen. Stuff we’d all been  _ explicitly _ ordered not to do.” Yonji picked up his skewer, and began stirring the surface of the cheese distractedly. “He never noticed, most of the time...but…”

_ “There it is.” _ Musette had a suspicion that there was going to be a specific incident at the heart of this. “But there was a time he did?”

Setting the skewer down, Yonji held up a brown-gloved hand and showed two fingers. Musette had seen Nexus do something similar all the time. “Father had two very big rules - no independent visits to the infirmary, that was the first one.”

“Huh?” Musette wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but it wasn’t that. She tilted her head sideways, confused. “Why?”

“I’m  _ getting _ to that.” A brief flash of annoyance crossed his face, and Musette fell silent again, resting her face against Yonji’s chest, ear pressed against him. She could hear his heartbeat through his coat, racing faster, and she could feel his muscles tensing. “There were - well, there  _ are _ \- these gardens in Germa, right by the infirmary. A bunch of different plants, but they all attract butterflies. The servants have always called it ‘The Queen’s Garden’ because, well...I guess that’s what it is. Or was. Whatever.”

_ The queen. _ Musette was more than intrigued. Not once had she heard any mention from anyone about the Queen of Germa, Yonji’s mother. She’d gathered that the queen had long since passed away, but anything else was a mystery. Nodding, Musette motioned for Yonji to continue.

“Anyway...the second rule was to  _ never _ touch anything growing in that garden. Ever.” Yonji moved the food tray onto an empty section of bench, crossing one leg over the other as his other arm went around Musette, holding her as he stared off at nothing. “I would see servants collecting some of the flowers in vases and bringing them into the infirmary, on my father’s orders. I don’t know why but one day, I decided  _ I _ was going to do that.”

He paused, and Musette brought a hand up, linking it in one of his. 

“I waited until everyone fell asleep and snuck over there easily. There were so many different plants, a lot to choose from, but I grabbed tall purple ones that smelled good because I remembered seeing butterflies all over those.” Frowning, Yonji blinked slowly. “I forgot to bring something to cut them. So I yanked them up, roots and all, and brought them into the infirmary like that, trailing dirt everywhere.” He looked down at Musette, another unreadable look on his face.

“Lots of kids make mistakes like that,” Musette gently assured him, hoping she was saying the right thing. Just as something had compelled her to talk to Yonji about her singing, something seemed to be compelling him to tell her this.

He made an approving sound, perking up slightly and smiling. “The one fat lady who always sat at the front was asleep at her desk so I just walked right past her. She would’ve just gotten in the way anyway. I knew where I was going.”

Again, his heart began to race, and when Musette looked at him again, he was back to frowning.

“I thought  _ she’d _ be asleep too. But she wasn’t. She was sitting up in bed, staring out the window, and she looked so... _ happy _ to see me, standing there, getting dirt all over her floor. Nobody ever gets happy to see  _ me _ . I remember she smiled at me. She asked me, ‘Yonji, did you pick those just for me? Lavender is my favorite!’” Suddenly, Yonji lurched slightly beneath Musette, slumping with a miserably sad look on his face. “I froze, I didn’t know what to say or what to do. She told me, ‘I’m so excited to see you, I’ve missed you, I love you so much.’ I panicked before she could say anything else. I threw the flowers onto the bed, on her lap, and I ran out of the room.”

Musette exhaled slowly. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath.

“She died not long after that.”

There was dampness on Musette’s head, and she thought for a moment that it was more melting snowflakes. But it didn’t feel right - it was too warm to be melted snow. And then there was another, and more. Several more. Musette got a strange feeling, and she looked up at Yonji, who quickly turned his head away, rubbing furiously at his face with an open palm.

“I wasn’t trying to dump that all out...sorry.” Yonji leaned away from Musette as they both sat up, grabbing the tray with both hands while keeping his face turned away from her. “It just kind of came out. I’ve been thinking a lot about her lately. You smile like her. I mean - it doesn’t look the same, but it gives me the same feeling. If that makes sense.”

He was crying. Musette could hear it in his voice, which was thicker and more unsteady than she’d ever heard it. She didn’t need to see his face. Musette got to her feet as he stood up as well, and she realized it was finally nighttime, with all of Neigebelle glowing in shadows around them. The crowds had thinned out slightly from when they’d first sat down, and above them, the clouds were clearing away, revealing a sky alight with stars. Musette stood, staring at the sky after picking up the shopping bags, and Yonji walked off to return their tray. When he came back, he wasn’t hiding his face anymore, but she could see his blue eyes were ringed in red.

“I have one more thing I wanted to ask you,” he started, taking the bags from Musette’s hands.

“Me first - where do you want to go now?”

“Back to our bed.” He turned to leave, extending his arm to Musette, who accepted it and leaned into him. The tension in his muscles was gone, and she could feel that his pulse had slowed to a normal pace. Yonji even seemed to be walking differently, with a slightly lighter step, though Musette could’ve supposed it was her imagination. “But I wanted to ask about your name.”

Musette smiled, and suppressed a laugh.  _ That _ was unexpected. “I take it you looked up what it means at some point?”

“Song.  _ Little _ song, since it’s diminutive.” They walked in step with each other, once again cutting through opposing foot traffic without paying much mind to the people who flowed on either side of them. “It’s interesting, having a name like that and you happen to be good at singing.”

“Oh, it’s no coincidence.” That was something that made her smile, a sweet little secret Musette didn’t mind sharing. She sighed happily, leaning her head against Yonji again. “Slave children aren’t given names and my mother refused to give me one even after we were free.  _ I _ picked my name.  _ I _ made myself Musette. Nobody else.”

Yonji let out a loud laugh, and his chest vibrated pleasantly. “Maybe I’ll be lucky enough one day to really hear just how perfect of a choice that was.”

Musette decided she’d like that - and he would get to hear just how perfectly she’d picked her name. But not that night. Not just yet.


	36. SOFI VIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Wow yeah this took a bit sorry  
> \- I'm going to try to stay on top of updating this fic at a normal pace

It had taken hours to disentangle herself from her family, but Sofi had managed to pull it off, just like old times. Her fingers ached, her head throbbed - but she was free, running down the streets of Neigebelle with her copy of  _ Old Arts _ tucked under her arm, trying to remember where the bookstore was as she ducked and weaved through packs of tourists. It was hard to move in the clothes her mother had insisted she wear - a knee-length skirt, itchy tights, and a clunky coat that was so tightly nipped at the waist, she could barely breathe. But she didn’t have a change of clothes - and she was going back to the Chateau later anyway...if Saki didn’t catch up again.

Sofi had been home in the past year, after getting caught with Aspen by those nosey dumbshits that were supposed to be guards. And  _ still, _ dealing with her mother never came easy. It had taken Sofi hours, precious hours, to get even a second of free time. And even free as she was, sprinting and crashing into more people than she had when she was drunk the day before, she couldn’t stop mulling over where the hell her day had gone. All around her, windows were lit with holiday lights, street lamps threw bright circles of golden light over packed cobblestone roads - the entire goddamn  _ day _ was gone, one of the  _ only _ days she had to spend with Aspen before that red-haired nightmare was there with them. Sofi couldn’t help but be bitter.

“Again.”

The morning had started in a spot that Sofi had slowly grown to hate - at the piano in the drawing room, surrounded by ugly old photos and her mother’s sad excuse for interior decorating. Her parents had a piano at every property they owned - one at the castle back in Åker, and then in Neigebelle at their expansive vacation chalet. It was always the centerpiece of whatever room it was in, massive, black, and specifically for Sofi. Always had been. Daven didn’t play.  _ Saki _ certainly didn’t play. Her father wasn’t allowed within five feet of the piano. Sofi didn’t hate playing, she loved it - but only if Aspen accompanied her on the violin. Otherwise, what was the point? On top of that, the chalet’s piano was old, and Sofi suspected it was long out of tune.

None of that seemed to matter to Sonia Sanofi. The Duchess Sonia had snapped her fingers irritably, standing just behind Sofi and looking over her shoulder at the sheet music. “Again, Sofiya. Have you been practicing at all?”

The answer was no, but Sofi didn’t dare tell her mother that. When would she have had the time to practice, between the royal assholes visiting the palace and her dabbling with the  _ Old Arts _ book? Shoulders hunched, she turned to her mother, pulling the most exaggerated grimace she could manage. “The piano is out of tune,” she tried to explain, knowing immediately she would be accused of whining. “It has nothing to do with me not practicing.” 

In perfect Sofi fashion, she’d said the precise thing she had meant to avoid. Realizing too late to do anything about it, she watched as her mother - an older, scarier version of herself in appearance, with a permanent frown and creases in her forehead - grew stiff, swelling in anger with her arms folded over her chest. “Sofiya Ellander…” Sonia growled, brown eyes narrowing in displeasure. 

Behind her mother, in the doorway, Sofi could see Saki watching with an expression of unbridled glee on her face. Their eyes met, and Saki stuck her tongue out.

_ “I’m going to kill that little shit.” _

Suddenly, Sonia’s hands were on her shoulders, forcing Sofi to face the piano again with a rough jerk. Sofi could feel every one of her mother’s bony fingers digging in tight, even through the thick, clunky sweater she’d been given to wear. “ _ Again _ , Sofiya.”

That had lasted hours.  _ Hours. _ And that wasn’t accounting for the time wasted when he father had tried to come in and speak to her. Scarcely taller than Sofi herself, and a head shorter than her mother, he was rambling eagerly as he waved that morning’s edition of the newspaper. His dark red sweater was already stained with tea, and his blue eyes were ridiculously magnified behind the same square frames he’d owned since Sofi was a baby, the bridge wrapped in layers of tape at least an inch thick. His curly black hair looked as though it had not been combed since she’d seen them nearly two months ago. “Did either of you have a chance to read about -”

Her mother was  _ not _ having it, quickly turning around and holding both arms straight out. “Dagvard! Away from the piano!” 

“Ah, yes, of course my love.” Dagvard Sanofi passed close to a shelf with framed photos and several of Sonia’s glass vases before coming to a stop, his elbow bumping into the last one in the row - an ornate, hand-blown piece that was older than Sofi herself. It did not budge. Sofi’s mother had learned long ago that all priceless belongings and heirlooms needed to be glued, strapped down, mounted, or bolted into place around her husband. “There was this story in the paper, about a fire in Snøvanger, and another in St. Santigaard, and -”

“Sofiya is  _ practicing, _ Dagvard.” Sofi felt her mother’s hand bracing on her shoulder, and she could hear exasperation in her voice. Same as it always was. Her mother always seemed so burnt out by her father, and Sofi genuinely had no idea how they’d stayed married, let alone had three children. It was one thing for her mother to always steamroll right over  _ her _ , but her father had just taken it with a smile for as long as Sofi could remember. “I’m certain whatever article you found can wait.”

Sofi’s father didn’t seem to agree, and she turned around to see him sputtering, hopping excitedly from foot to foot, newspaper still gripped in his hand. “But - but Sonia, there is a report on a similar fire in Åker, should we not -”

“Our daughter is  _ practicing, _ Dagvard.” From her tone, it was clear that there was no room for negotiating. “We can talk about whatever you’ve read at lunchtime.  _ Again _ , Sofiya.”

“There it is!” Through the bundled-up crowd and increasing snowfall, Sofi spotted the bookstore. It was relatively dark, compared to the bright and colorful shops on either side, and Sofi could see the postcard display she’d hidden behind in the window. Zipping through the flow of foot traffic, Sofi ran right up to the door and saw a sign placed in the front window:  _ closed for private event. _

Ignoring the sign, Sofi pounded on the door with a closed fist, clutching the book tightly as she hopped from foot to foot. A few Marines passed by, bundled in winter coats, and looked at her oddly as she continued to bang despite the lack of response. After a few minutes, just as she started to accumulate a fine coating of snow on her curls, a bespectacled woman cracked the door open and frowned at her. “Can’t you read the sign?”

“The book club!” Sofi exclaimed, still bouncing excitedly in place, holding the book so the woman could see the title. “I meant to come over this morning to ask for permission to come, like Page said - Page, the guy I talked to about this, he said his mom runs this book club every other night, and -”

“Duchess Sofiya?” The woman opened the door wider, and Sofi could see she was a middle aged woman, slightly on the dumpy side, with greying black hair. She wore a full face of makeup, with bright pink lipstick. Behind the glasses, her eyes were wide in surprise - and they went wider still at the sight of the book in Sofi’s arms. “Where did you get that?”

“Found it,” Sofi breathed, knowing far better than to confess to having stolen it out of Princess Belladonna’s belongings back at the palace. She shook her head, shaking the snow free, and stepped closer to the door excitedly. “I found it, and I tried one of the spells in it, and I was able to summon a -”

“Inside,” the woman interrupted firmly, face shocked as she opened the door the rest of the way. She looked up and down the street as Sofi rushed past, growing more excited by the moment. “That’s not the sort of thing you want to just admit to in public.”

Inside, the bookstore was even darker than it had been when Sofi had hidden inside the previous day. Most of the lamps on the crowded shelves had been dimmed significantly, or had been completely turned off. What little illumination there was threw long shadows on the floor, giving the shop an ominous, unsettling feeling when compared to the cheerful Yule spirit that permeated the town just outside the windows. A sudden feeling of foreboding dropped into Sofi’s gut like a dumbbell, and she gripped the book tighter. 

_ “Maybe I shouldn’t have come here without telling anyone.” _

The woman headed through the maze of shelves, gesturing for Sofi to follow with a wave of her hand. Uncomfortably silent, Sofi followed her past rows and rows of books that seemed even more tightly packed than she remembered. She couldn’t hear any noises from the main road after a few minutes, and the hair on the back of her neck prickled as they passed more rows of tall, narrow shelves that blocked any view of the front of the shop. The dread that had bloomed in Sofi’s stomach spread through her body the longer she followed, a feeling Sofi had not felt before in her life. She was on the verge of turning on her heel and running back the way she’d come when they reached a small doorway, set almost at the very back of the store. The archway was old stone, with a rickety wooden door hanging open.

Inside, the small room was well lit, with a handful of women sitting in a circle of chairs and chatting amongst each other, all holding the same book on their laps. At the back wall, there was a small table with a large punch bowl and several stacks of paper cups. There was a platter with several different varieties of cookie, and a large tray with cold cuts and cheese. The women all looked around the same age as Sofi’s mother - perhaps slightly younger, in a few cases - talking cheerfully about the upcoming holiday and their holiday shopping.

“Astrid asked for all sorts of art supplies but you know how it is, trying to find the right materials at this time of year - I don’t want to waste money on knockoffs she isn’t going to use -”

“Next year, I swear, I’m going to just start my holiday shopping in September, every year it gets worse, especially with the glut of tourists buying up everything in sight -”

Sofi let out a deep sigh of relief, and she relaxed her shoulders from how tightly they’d been tensed. It was a  _ book club, _ for fuck’s sake - discussing admittedly peculiar topics, Sofi couldn’t deny that, but still, what had she been so nervous about? She could feel a trickle of sweat running down the back of her neck as she stood in the doorway beside the woman who had let her in, and her face grew red in embarrassment.  _ “I’m being an idiot.” _

Regardless, the uncomfortable anxiety in her stomach wouldn’t budge.

“Ladies!” The woman beside her gave a small clap of her hands, and the other women stopped talking and looked up, tilting their heads in confusion but still smiling. She put her arm around Sofi, holding her tightly at her waist, and Sofi felt her shoulders beginning to go rigid once again. “We have a very special guest who wants to participate tonight!”

Immediately, the women jumped to their feet, dropping paper plates with cookie crumbs, crumpled napkins, and the books they’d been holding. They bowed low, out of order and clumsy, and Sofi laughed nervously. It was like the tavern all over again.  _ Aspen _ was the one who was usually the recipient of such reverence, not Sofi - though Sofi had always joked that she’d take people groveling at her feet any day.  _ “Is this how Aspen always feels?” _

“You’re just in time, Duchess - we haven’t begun our discussion of the book just yet. We were actually talking about the Sanofi family.” The woman led her to an empty seat across from the door, on the opposite end of the circle. Sofi accepted her seat with a smile, hoping her nerves weren’t apparent on her face. “I’m Eva, by the way - Page is my son.”

“Thanks for having me.” Sofi struggled to dredge up literally any of the excitement she’d felt right up until walking through the door, and it was made even more difficult by the casual mention that they’d been discussing her family. She hoped her wide, fake smile was convincing any of them. All of the women were smiling right back at her as they collected everything they dropped, setting all back on their laps like it was nothing. “Um...talking about my family?”

Eva’s face lit up as she sat down directly beside Sofi, patting her knee affectionately. “Oh yes! We heard your parents and siblings are in Neigebelle as well - always a pleasure to have nobility spending time amongst us.”

“Except the Vinsmokes?” The question came out before Sofi could catch herself, and she bit hard on her tongue when her mouth snapped shut again. 

The smiles on the faces of all the other women vanished, replaced with grimaces and looks of loathing. Sofi quickly averted her gaze, glancing up at the ceiling and the dull, yellowing lights recessed into the ceiling. 

“Hoarfrostian nobility,” Eva clarified, her voice thin.

Sofi smiled, feeling the trickle of sweat on her neck again. 

“Did you know that the Sanofis are referred to as, ‘the Vanguard of Hoarfrost?’” One of the other women spoke up, wearing a forced smile of her own. Her long blonde hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun, and there was a shadow in her grey eyes that unsettled Sofi even further. 

“I’ve heard of that, yeah,” Sofi admitted, her grip tightening on her book, pressing her fingertips into the uneven edges of the pages. She’d come to get advice on how to use the  _ Old Arts _ book, not to talk about her family. “Not really sure what’s meant by that. My father’s probably told me but I don’t remember.”

Eva laughed, and patted Sofi’s knee a little harder. The other members of the circle chuckled a bit as well, exchanging knowing looks with each other. “It refers to the Sanofis having the higher rank out of all Hoarfrostian nobility,” Eva explained, taking a sip of her drink as she smiled warmly at Sofi. “The Sanofis were the first noble family to swear fealty to Queen Noelle.”

_ A fucking history lesson. _ Sofi couldn’t mask her grimace. “Oh. That’s nice.”

“There’s more to it than that,” Eva went on, oblivious to Sofi’s disinterest and discomfort. She finished off her drink, crumpling the paper cup in her hand as she flashed Sofi an even bigger smile. Sofi could see smudges of her lipstick on her teeth. “For generations, the Sanofis have had a high honor given to no other noble family - an honor that, until relatively recently, was more symbolic than anything.”

“Ok…” Once again, Sofi felt the urge to get up and run gnawing at her. The other women in the circle were still smiling, sipping drinks and nibbling on cookies as they exchanged looks with each other. Sofi glanced from one to another, and another, trying to find somewhere to rest her eyes without it being strange, combing over their clothes and accessories - white blouse with pink hearts, thick-rimmed orange glasses, earrings shaped like moons…

Eva made a tutting noise and shook her head, a disappointed look on her face. “Did you really not know? In the event that there is no Frostbane to sit the throne, the honor passes to the Sanofi family!”

Sofi blinked at Eva, squinting at her, trying to process what she’d said. She didn’t panic, despite feeling vaguely as though she should - there was no way she’d heard that correctly. “Could you repeat that?”

There was that winning smile again - from Eva, from all the other women in the room. “The Sanofi family inherits the throne if there are no Frostbanes left.”

“Ah.” The hairs on the back of Sofi’s neck that had been standing on end earlier were at it again, along with the rest of the hairs all over her body, prickling all over her skin. Her chest felt tight, and her mouth was pulled in an unnatural smile - likely the fakest she’d ever pulled. And Sofi had almost two decades of experience in faking smiles.

_ “I need to leave.” _

Eva’s hand was on her knee again but this time there was no patting, only a tight squeeze. “That means if, say...something should happen to Princess Aspen, prior to her marriage to Ichiji Vinsmoke, your father would be king - and then the throne would pass to you.”

Clarification Sofi had neither wanted nor needed. Her mouth was beginning to go dry, and she could feel her heart pounding. “Thanks. I don’t think anything is going to happen to Aspen.” As far as Sofi knew, Aspen was at the Chateau with Musette and Yonji - Musette, who would stab a bitch (initially only suspected, and now finally confirmed), and Yonji, who, well, didn’t necessarily need a reason to get violent. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

“I hope not,” one of the other women joined in sympathetically. Her face was serious and drawn, but the corners of her mouth kept twitching upwards. “Did you hear about the fires in Åker, Snøvanger, and St. Santigaard? I heard the girls who died in those fires were dead ringers for the princess. That seems to be an ill omen.”

Fires. Her father had mentioned something about fires earlier, hadn’t he? Sofi struggled to remember as she felt color draining from her face. If what they were saying was true... _ if what they were saying was true… _ “Oh. No. I hadn’t heard about it.”

“I’m not surprised.” A third woman joined in, and just like the one before, she couldn’t seem to stop smiling. “A lot of people in the kingdom are angry about the alliance with Germa - with the Vinsmokes - but we knew it wasn’t the princess’s fault that her advisor misled her into agreeing to the marriage as a child.”

Sofi quickly objected, despite her nerves. “Nexus would never -”

“There’s talk going around that Prince Ichiji formally proposed, and Princess Aspen accepted. People are upset.”

_ “I need to leave.” _ Sofi thought quickly, staring straight down at her lap. That rumor was the truth - truth that Sofi herself had leaked accidentally at the tavern. Nexus had sworn everyone to secrecy the day after Ichiji had proposed, insisting it stay hush-hush until the issues with those occult fanatics could be brought under control - and Sofi, in her drunken haze, had completely forgotten. But Sofi had only  _ just _ leaked that information the day before...and the fires had been in the news that morning. The swiftness in the retaliation was not lost on her. “The marriage arrangement was signed  _ years _ ago, a proposal is just -”

“All we’re saying,” Eva cut it, giving Sofi one last smile and another squeeze of her knee. Sofi stared at her, expressionless, and Eva stared back. Her smile was genuine, reaching to her eyes - but there was no empathy, no comfort. There was a maliciousness that Sofi had never seen or felt before - and her heart pounded louder in her head. “Is that, while we hope nothing happens to Princess Aspen, we can rest easy knowing the Sanofi family - Hoarfrost’s most noble family - will be there to guide us all.”

Sofi said nothing. Her face felt hot, and then cold as beads of sweat dripped over her cheeks. The air in the room was tense and suffocating - and the door leading back into the convoluted maze of bookshelves was on the opposite side of the room. 

“Right.” Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Sofi smiled back at Eva, thinking hard again. She wasn’t stupid. And she knew a threat when she heard one. Aspen needed to be told immediately, and Nexus too.  _ “Maybe it’s a good thing that the red-haired nightmare will be coming up soon.” _

“Did we want to move onto the book?” Sofi asked calmly, casually brushing the sweat off her face and opening the book across her lap. Flipping through pages, she saw crows staring up at her, watching with wide, blind eyes. 

Eva released her knee, turning away to open her own book. Sofi kept her gaze down, aware of every eye in the room watching her. From the birds on the pages to the women in the chairs, they all had eyes only for Sofi. It was attention she would’ve relished under any other circumstance. “Ah, of course - this is why we’re meeting after all! Let’s discuss the divinity of crows as they relate to Maniluna...I’m sure everyone has a different version of the book…”


	37. ASPEN IX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- And with this chapter, I am putting this on hold until November. I'm going to be doing some fic prompts every day for October (OTPtober) that will feature Niji x Aspen, so I want to be able to focus on those without worrying about updating my longer works. Sorry about that!  
> \- Also I'm getting married at the end of October so I have to like...stop procrastinating...on some last minute shit

If Aspen had known right off the bat that her precious freedom was dwindling with every passing second, she would have done more with her day. They’d slept in late, catching up on the sleep Aspen had lacked for so long - well, Aspen had anyway. When she’d finally woken up, groggily rolling onto her side at the edge of the bed, Niji was already awake - barefoot, pants on, shirt unbuttoned as he slumped forward in a chair by the fire, resting his elbows on his knees and looking away from her. “So you’re not just a bratty princess, you’re a lazy one too?”

After a period of back and forth bickering, Aspen rolled out of bed and made her way to the bathroom, shutting and locking the door even as Niji mockingly boasted that he could force his way in if he really felt like it. Grabbing for her toothbrush, she turned to the mirror and was caught off-guard by a large, empty section of wall. There was adhesive residue where the mirror had once been affixed, and nearly the entire counter space glittered with broken shards of glass.

 _“What the fuck happened?”_ Bewildered, Aspen shook her head to ensure she was fully awake and seeing correctly. The wall was still blank, and the mirror was still in millions of pieces on the countertop, its pieces shining like brilliant stone. Surely it hadn’t been like that when she’d arrived, right? Staring at it gave her a peculiar feeling in her stomach, bubbling up through her skin and tingling at the nape of her neck. Setting her toothbrush back down, Aspen reached out with an open hand, just barely grazing the layer of glass. _“I didn’t do this, did I?”_

The pieces were oddly-sized; some were uneven and jagged and others were no bigger than creek pebbles. Aspen picked up a larger piece and studied it, confused. The quiet churning in her stomach continued. _“Niji.”_ Niji was involved somehow. She was certain. Aspen set the glass back down, slipping the elastic from her wrist and tying her hair up and out of her face. But why would Niji have broken her mirror?

Aspen didn’t feel right asking - not while she was getting dressed, not while she was reviewing the marriage contract (and coming up empty again), and not when Niji came up from behind and interrupted her in the middle of poring over the contract for a _fifth_ time, grabbing her tits in his hands and sinking his teeth into her neck. That distraction in particular had been a welcome one, the only one that had driven the thoughts of the broken mirror from her mind, and with it, the uncomfortable feeling in her gut.

Despite the urgency of the contract - the axe forever hanging directly over her neck - Aspen gave into Niji’s demanding gestures readily enough. It seemed a decent way to get out her frustrations, at least initially. But when Aspen found herself flush-faced and _still dressed_ as she straddled him in front of the fire, hands in his hair as he rammed his tongue down her throat, that she was only getting more frustrated. Every time she moved her hands to take her shirt off, to slide her leggings down, or even just to reach for his belt buckle, Niji caught her hands in his and brought them right back to his shoulders. After the _sixth_ time, Aspen felt her anger growing.

How they’d ended up in the hot springs was still a mystery to her, but at least it was relaxing. Or as relaxing as it _could_ be, before Niji had turned the conversation to his brother. And the casual mention of the call he’d taken before she’d awoken that morning.

“Ichiji called you this morning.” Niji sipped at his scotch, and Aspen could feel him studying her through his fogged-up goggles, sitting directly across from her in the warm waters of the spring. He had opted to hop into the spring wearing nothing, save for the towel he’d come outside in - Aspen, who had come to the spring first (and alone, in an old bathing suit) had nearly swallowed her entire bottle of wine when he’d walked out, short towel slung low on his hips. In the low illumination from the lamps lining the spring and the walkway back to the Chateau, she could see shadows defining the muscles in his legs, his abdomen, and his arm. To say nothing of the distinct trail of hair leading from his navel into the towel. Aspen had choked when she saw him, spilling wine down her chin and into the spring. Not one of her prouder moments. “I took the call for you.”

Aspen reached for the wine bottle once more, nearly cracking it on the craggy stones that lined the perimeter of the spring when she yanked it from its snowbank. A call from Ichiji, after radio silence since she’d snuck out right under his nose? She couldn’t think of many things to wake up to that were as awful as that. “I...see. And?”

Niji frowned, tilting his glass of scotch back and forth in his hand. “And what?”

If she hadn’t been so anxious to hear what Ichiji had said, she wouldn’t have pursued what she knew would be an exhausting conversation. She could’ve sworn Niji was being obtuse on purpose. “And what did he _fucking say_ , Niji?” Beneath the water, Aspen could feel one of her legs beginning to bounce up and down in place, jarring her uncomfortable stomach, filled with wine and not much else. “I’m assuming he wouldn’t have called if he didn’t have something to say, right? So what did he fucking say?” 

For a moment, Aspen could’ve sworn she saw a peculiar flicker on his face - an expression not fully formed, and gone too soon. It was replaced with his shit-eating grin as he laid back, stretching both arms out and resting them on the edge just outside the water. “He commented on you leaving without saying goodbye.”

There was a pause, silent except for the water bubbling, and Aspen leaned in closer to Niji - still leaving several feet between them - and exaggeratedly cupped a hand around her ear. It could not have been more obvious from the look on his face that there was more to it than that. “And _what fucking else?”_

The smile got bigger, and Aspen immediately regretted asking. “He misses you.”

Aspen felt bile shoot up her throat, burning hot and painful - and she immediately swallowed it back down. She set her glass back where it was, and sank deeper into the waters. Despite their blanketing heat, she could feel a cold pit in her stomach. “Ah.” Her voice was smaller, and more shaky than she had particularly wanted Niji to hear. “I see.”

“Not sure why he misses you,” Niji continued, taking another drink of his scotch and keeping his tone casual. “He’s going to see you first thing tomorrow morning so it won’t even be like you two were apart for so long.”

“What?” Aspen’s brow furrowed in confusion, and she straightened back up where she sat. Niji was watching her, observing her carefully, and she couldn’t decipher his expression. Niji had the timing wrong - but then, Aspen couldn’t have expected him to know. She hadn’t discussed the timing with him like she had Sofi, and he hadn’t been back at the palace when Nexus would’ve informed Ichiji. “No, that’s not right. He’s not coming up for a few more days still. I left a letter explaining.”

Niji nodded in understanding, and Aspen started to feel the confusion going away once more. Just a simple miscommunication, easily cleared up -

“Maybe originally but I told him on the call to come up tomorrow morning.”

The confusion was back, again. Aspen thought for a moment she hadn’t heard Niji right, as the hot waters of the spring suddenly felt like a bath of ice. “You...did what now?”

“Told him to come up first thing tomorrow.”

Aspen felt the chill intensify as she felt an overpowering urge to vomit. “Once more?”

“I told Ichiji to come up early.”

In a moment of very slight relief, Aspen felt an explosion of indignant rage overpowering the weakness, fear, and nausea she felt wrestling inside of her. She stood straight up, bursting out of the water as she shook in anger, water dripping off of her, clouds of steam forming around her in the freezing cold air. Part of her observed that it was a very small wonder that no windows in the vicinity cracked as they had the day before. Niji watched her interestedly, not cowed by her anger in the slightest. It only made matters worse.

“WHY DID YOU TELL ICHIJI TO COME UP EARLY?” To say Aspen was livid was an understatement.

Niji grinned at her, glass of scotch in hand with his other arm stretched out, carelessly lounging as he watched her grow angrier. Her sudden explosion out of the spring had sprayed him with water, and it dripped down his face and beaded on his goggles. Aspen wanted to snatch his drink out of his hand and throw it in his face, but she was too angry to even think straight. “Technically,” he explained, voice an almost teasing kind of calm as he took a sip of his drink. “It was _your_ voice he heard. So _you_ are the one who told him to come up early.”

Escalating quickly from ‘livid’ to ‘apoplectic,’ Aspen’s hands flew to her hair, yanking on the long black tresses in frustration and causing her high bun to fall apart. The whole _point_ of the trip was to get a break from Ichiji - well, that and to review the marriage papers. And she had scarcely gotten a day to do either. Niji was even worse for her productivity than Sofi. “YOU USED MY FUCKING VOICE?”

“I did.” Niji’s smile slipped back into a frown as he looked down into his glass, his goggles fogging up from the heat of the spring. “And I had to say some _sickening_ things to my own brother to get you back in his good graces. Feel free to thank me any time now.”

“YOU WANT _ME_ TO THANK _YOU?”_

“Enough of your shouting. I’m sitting right here.”

Snatching her own towel from a nearby rock and the rest of the wine, Aspen threw the towel over her shoulders as she climbed out of the spring, stomping back up the heated pathway to the back entry as she shivered from the cold. Her brain was stuck, frozen in panic, and Aspen knew that was the only reason all the windows weren’t blowing out as she threw open the back door and stormed into the Chateau. Seething with rage, shoving the oncoming panic attack as deep down as she could, Aspen made her way through the house, towards the stairs and back to her room -

Niji caught her right at the stairs, grasping her arms at her elbows and pinning her to the wall. His smile was gone, teeth gritted together in a furious grimace as he stood close to her in just a towel, water dripping steadily down his chest and his legs to puddle on the hardwood floor. Aspen glared back up into his face, unintimidated. “There you go, running away agai -”

Livid, Aspen swung her arm down, slamming the bottom of her wine bottle into the wall as hard as she could. The impact ejected the remaining two-thirds of the bottle, sending a dark red jet of wine up and directly into Niji’s face. He let go of Aspen for a fraction of a second immediately following the spray, and she twisted away from him - only to be seized by her shoulders, lifted off the floor, and slammed firmly against the wall. The sudden upward movement disoriented her, and when Aspen had gotten her bearings straight, she found that Niji’s face was directly against hers - as close as it had been when they’d been fooling around in private earlier. Through her swimsuit, through her towel, she could feel the heat of his skin as it sent shivers up her spine. The wine that had soaked him had a sticky, tacky touch as it dried, and every shift of her body pulled where it tried to bind them. His exposed teeth looked more threatening still, but Aspen found it gave her a different feeling than she’d anticipated. 

_“Hot.”_ Her brain wasn’t up to the task of interpreting anything more. _“Why?”_

“Apologize,” he growled, voice low and dangerous.

“I’m sorry.” Perhaps she was still disoriented, overwhelmed by the horror of Ichiji arriving the very next morning and being thrown against the wall in such a way. Aspen found her voice was unusually high in her apology - and she was baffled that she had apologized at all. _“But I’m not sorry.”_

There was a brief gust of cold air, and the clicking of a door latching. “Well, this is weird.”

“Sofi!” Dropping the now-empty wine bottle, Aspen shoved Niji backwards as she craned her head towards the door. Bundled up in her heavy coat was Sofi, clutching that stupid _Old Arts_ book to her chest and looking more tired than Aspen had ever seen her. Niji released Aspen without protest, and she stumbled slightly when her feet hit the floor. Recovering her balance quickly, she flung herself at Sofi, feeling the freezing cold buttons and snaps of her coat pressing into her skin as Sofi hugged her with one arm. 

“I’m not interrupting a lovers’ quarrel, am I?” Sofi’s usually bright eyes were tired and almost clouded in appearance as she released Aspen from their brief hug. She looked over at Niji - still in only a towel, stained from head to toe in wine and standing in a puddle, and let out a tense, unconvincing laugh. “I kid, I kid. Looks like you two were...having fun I guess.”

Immediately, all the guilt from the day before came rushing back. Aspen grabbed Sofi as she pulled her hood down, freeing her wild curls, and pulled her into another hug. “Where have you been?? I thought you’d be back way earlier in the day so maybe we could all do something - I mean, you, me, and Musette, _we_ could all do something -”

Behind her, Niji made a _tch_ sound.

“But now, it’s...it’s so late and…” Aspen’s frantic babbling trailed off as she realized Sofi was just regarding her strangely, face blank in a way that she hadn’t seen before. She was clutching her book tightly, and Aspen noticed she kept looking away to glance at Niji, who was still hanging around just behind her. There was a sharp jolt of discomfort in her gut as Aspen remembered _why_ she had come back inside to begin with. “I just...I’m glad you’re here...we can make tonight special, we can do something - Sofi, I know the point of this trip was to get me away from Ichiji, but…”

“But?” Sofi raised an eyebrow. Her voice didn’t sound right either - it hadn’t sounded right since she’d walked in the door. Aspen couldn’t suss out what was wrong. She didn’t sound angry, and she didn’t sound sad. Aspen’s next guess was going to be stress, but she couldn’t remember having ever heard Sofi be stressed out before in her life. “What about it?”

Aspen sucked in a deep breath. They had been looking forward to getting time alone on this trip - well, time for the two of them, and time with Musette. Niji and Yonji had kept that from happening - and Sofi’s family as well, to an extent. The news was going to piss her off and Aspen knew it. She hesitated, and everything was silent outside of the steady _drip_ of wine still trickling off of Niji and onto the floor. “He’s. Ah. Coming up tomorrow. For some reason.”

Sofi’s eyes went wide. Aspen swore she could see some of the familiar fire in them for a moment. “He is?”

“Yeah.”

Visibly relaxing her body, Sofi let out a loud exhale, almost doubling over with what looked like relief. Aspen couldn’t understand it, and pulled her towel around her shoulders like a blanket. Behind her, she could feel Niji’s eyes on her, practically drilling a hole right into the back of her head. “Good. Okay. That’s good, it’ll be good to get him up here. You know. Have him here, that moron behind you, and the other dipshit. All three of them together. Good.”

This time, it was Aspen’s turn to stiffen. “Excuse me?”

“That’s _really_ good, honestly.” Sofi was babbling just as Aspen had, slipping off her boots and placing them directly beside the door - a habit she only practiced after being around her mother. Something was still not quite right about how Sofi was carrying herself, Aspen couldn’t put her finger on it - but she was moving too quickly, and avoiding eye contact as she peeled off her coat. “You know, just...like, seeing how bad things were in Altest and Drammen, and how that’s honestly not far from here...it could be safer, honestly, having Ichiji here and being close by. Nobody shuts the fuck up about how strong he is, yeah? I mean not that there’s anything going on in Neigebelle but better safe than sorry, right?”

Beneath her towel, Aspen gave herself a sharp pinch on her upper arm to make sure she hadn’t dozed off in the hot springs, or phased into some baffling alternate universe. When nothing changed and she found herself standing in the same spot by the stairs, wearing only a bathing suit and towel as Sofi continued rambling about how great it was that _Ichiji_ would be coming to join them on their holiday getaway, Aspen could _feel_ her breathing beginning to quicken with the renewed threat of a panic attack. “I..Sofi. Ichiji is -”

“What? He’s what?” Sofi let out a weird laugh, continuing not to look at Aspen as she hung her coat on the massive coat rack beside the door. “I know you don’t like him and all that but it’s not like he hurts you, so it couldn’t hurt to have him here for like, safety purposes during the trip.”

Aspen did not bother dignifying Sofi’s remark with a response. 

Worse, Sofi didn’t seem to be done. “I came back to pick up a change of clothes, I can’t stay the night - I need to, ah, talk to my parents about some important stuff. I’m sure you understand, right Aspen?”

Again, Aspen did not answer. Her head was beginning to hurt terribly, and her stomach churned with a thickening miasma of rage, confusion, and sadness. Not even ten minutes ago, she had been enjoying herself in the hot springs, looking forward to several days free from Ichiji and his overbearing, _constant_ presence. How had everything crumbled to pieces in such a short span of time? _“Like this is a new feeling to you or something. Idiot.”_

“Safety purposes?” Aspen finally found her ability to speak again, and she could feel a small pulse of rage in each syllable. “Ichiji should be here for _safety purposes?”_

For a moment, Aspen felt the floor beginning to tremble beneath her. Then she felt a hand clap down hard on her shoulder, nearly hard enough to knock her to the floor, and the shaking had stopped again. Irritated, Aspen glanced behind her to see Niji, squeezing her shoulder, staring at Sofi with his mouth thinned into a straight line. Even without being able to see his eyes, Aspen could see in his face that he had picked up on something being off with Sofi as well. _“And he doesn’t even know her like I do.”_

Sofi paused when she saw Niji, and her put-on smile disappeared. She tilted her head to the side, face creased in concern for the briefest sliver of a second. “Been keeping an eye on her, have you?”

“It’s hard not to.” Niji’s voice sounded suspicious.

Another laugh - it sounded almost normal that time. “I’m aware. Keep doing it.”

Without another word, Sofi took off up the stairs, curls bouncing on her shoulders as she disappeared from sight.

“For safety purposes,” Aspen repeated, voice flat. She wasn’t sure what to make of it, but inside her head, she was already flaring with self-loathing. _“You idiot. Maybe if you’d ever told her the truth of things. You told Musette and you didn’t tell Sofi.”_

“I think,” Niji spoke slowly, voice softer than usual. He loosened his grip on her shoulder but did not let go, gently stroking his fingertips over the towel. Aspen could feel every brush and every gesture. “We need to revisit the subject of you running away from your problems.”

Aspen closed her eyes, pulling the towel tighter and closer. There would most certainly be no running away this time - and no time to review the contract, or see Sofi, or do anything at all without Ichiji breathing down her neck. And he was bound to be _furious_ after how she’d slipped away from him. “I’d really rather not.”

Niji laughed, but more kindly than his usual fare. Aspen hated it. It almost felt piteous, on his part. “You don’t need to run from my brother, you little brat. The trick to manipulating him is quite easy - well, for _you_ , at least.”

“Sure. Tell me.” Aspen could not think of anything that interested her less. She hadn’t yet looked away from the top of the stairs, waiting for Sofi to re-emerge. To tell her it was a joke, a bad one but still a joke! That she’d just had too much to drink again and wasn’t thinking straight, and she was sorry. That she’d help Aspen figure out what to do. “Tell me the easy trick to manipulate your brother. I could use a good laugh.”

“Stop being who you are, at least around him. And start being who you’re _going_ to be.”

Aspen sighed, closing her eyes once again. “I asked for the trick, not a riddle.”

“And I thought you were smart enough to figure it out.” Niji let out a sigh of his own, sounding more tired than Aspen had thought. She almost felt bad for spraying him with wine - until she quickly remembered why she’d done it. Then she wished she could do it once again. “Who are you?”

“Aspen Frostbane.”

He brought his other hand to her shoulder, squeezing both gently and pressing his fingertips into the tense muscle. Aspen took a slow, deep breath as he moved his fingers slowly over where she’d pulled herself taut. “And who is that?”

“A fucking moron.”

“The princess of Hoarfrost.” Niji ignored her flippant but painfully honest answer. Aspen at least wanted him to agree with her. “Who are you _going_ to be?”

She didn’t have an answer. Not beyond what her father had always told her - be a good princess, a just princess. Though she supposed she wasn’t exactly on her way to do any of that, not with the way she had always pushed things onto Nexus. “Aspen Frostbane.”

“You’re going to be Aspen _Vinsmoke_ , queen of Germa.” Each word after her first name had been like a punch to the gut, and Aspen didn’t doubt for a second that Niji could feel her growing more and more rigid and stressed with every subsequent word. “Start acting like it, and see how things change with Ichiji. You’ll see, little brat.”


	38. NEXUS X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- no real warnings needed for this chapter

234 µg per liter. No matter how many times Nexus looked at Wintergreen’s blood workup, that number stayed the same. He didn’t think he’d fallen asleep that night, even as she lay in the bed beside him, the shape of her body beneath the covers moving up and down in the moonlight sneaking in through the window. Nexus stayed sitting up, reading the blood workup over and over, tired eyes that refused to close hunting for any detail he might have missed. 

234 µg per liter. When the toxic level for amber lead in the body is > 50 μg per liter. That little bit of background knowledge into the matter was an extra-sharp twist of the knife. Sitting with his back to the pillows, pillows too soft to give his aching back the support he really needed, Nexus thought back to the first time he’d ever seen any blood workup of Wintergreen’s. Back when his body never hurt, before his hair hadn’t shown the slightest hint of grey. He’d only just found a footing in Hoarfrost, and had been appointed deputy director of the Royal Research Facility for the promise he showed. 

Nexus couldn’t help but wrinkle his nose as he remembered it all, eyes wandering from the paperwork against his lap to the glass of water on his bedside table, seeing his aging reflection looking back at him. He’d been much younger. Arrogant. Even after having left Germa as he had, Nexus couldn’t recall it having done much to chasten his ego. Sitting in one of the private meeting rooms in the palace with the king and the head of the university hospital (who also happened to be head of Snøvanger Palace’s medical facility), his mind couldn’t stop wandering to the vague insult of being made  _ deputy  _ director, instead of director proper. Even for all the monstrous things Germa was - and did - at least they’d had the good sense to make him the head of research, experimentation, and development. Second only to the king.

At the present, Nexus temporarily left his thoughts with a shudder, grabbing his water and taking a long drink, ignoring the ice cold trickles that flowed over his bottom lip and chin before finding their way down his chest. Would that he could see his past self face to face...his first thought entailed a beating. One that past Nexus certainly would’ve shrugged right off.

“She’s a bright doctor, the medical knowledge of which we don’t see much of anymore in the North Blue,” the hospital administrator explained, shuffling through mismatched colors of paper in the giant ream plopped right in front of them, face concealed behind oversized glasses completely opaque with fingerprints. They plucked out a packet of papers in a pale shade of gold, sliding them across the table to Nexus. “They consented to the disclosure of this sensitive health information... _ ah _ , but, one look and you’ll see the problem, I’m sure.”

The king watched silently, a commanding figure at the end of the table. He was the same size as Judge, Nexus’s previous king, but looked far softer around the edges. For the occasion, he had changed out of the grey and black military uniform he practically lived in, into a snowy white jacket with his medals pinned over the breast pocket. King Walrin hadn’t spoken, choosing instead to listen silently and defer to the experts. As Nexus shot a glance in his direction, he watched the king accept a brightly colored candy from a tiny hand that poked up over the edge of the table.

Nexus picked up the packet, looking for a relevant tidbit in the rows and rows of medical information. A doctor, he was not, but he knew enough to spot something that was off. A new line added, for amber lead presence in the subject’s blood. “She has Amber Lead Syndrome.” Nexus was surprised, more than anything. He hadn’t heard of anyone outside of Flevance suffering from the condition...and, officially, there was no Flevance anymore. 

“It’s not contagious,” the administrator quickly jumped in, twitching in place so strongly that his glasses nearly fell off. “That was an unfortunate assumption made on the part of the World Government...an assumption that led to even greater tragedy.”

Walrin murmured in agreement, and Nexus saw the little hand pop back up with another piece of candy, the stained cuff of a purple sweater barely visible around the wrist that time.

“120 µg per liter,” Nexus muttered, reading the line out loud to ensure he was seeing the correct number. “The fatal dose is -”

“Much lower, we know, we all know,” the administrator interrupted, beginning to gather any spare papers into the massive, towering stack. Outside the tall windows, the wind was beginning to pick up speed, swirling more and more snow. Nexus had not yet become accustomed to it. “You...well, the research we’ve seen from you is remarkable. We’re not asking you to work a miracle, but -”

“You want me to see if there’s any treatment I can devise?” Nexus smirked, imagining the challenge it would bring - if the subject lasted long enough. “What is her current state? Is her health being managed?”

The tiny hand tugged on the king’s sleeve. “Pappa,  _ I’m bored.” _

Still listening intently, the king reached down to pat idly just below the table.

“I’m sure I can come up with something.” There it was, the lazy arrogance in his voice, the same arrogance he’d had when Judge Vinsmoke had intently discussed modifying the bloodline factors of children prior to birth. “I can’t see it being too terribly hard.” 

Startling Nexus slightly, he felt an insistent tug on the sleeve of his lab coat, and looked down to see a bright green eyes looking up at him from under the table. A tiny hand reached up towards him, holding a candy in a neon pink wrapper. “Candy?”

“Aspen,” King Walrin, keeping his voice quiet and calm, sharply rebuked his daughter. “Get back over here, please.”

“Right, ah…” Nexus, temporarily thrown off, struggled to find his train of thought again. The administrator was getting to his feet, arms tightly wrapped around the paperwork. “I’ll get this to the lab...so…”

King Walrin got to his feet as well, stretching his arms towards one of the many dangling light fixtures. “Wonderful, glad to hear. We’d love to see her on the mend - losing someone with so much medical promise would be a shame, now that we know more about what we’re working against. I have another meeting, incidentally -”

“More envoys from Germa, seeking a marriage arrangement for the princess? Judge Vinsmoke is certainly tenacious.” The administrator laughed nervously, but it was no joking matter - even then, the palace had received a deluge of arrangements, each offering more than the last, all in exchange for the princess’s hand for one of their princes.

Sensing she was being spoken about, Nexus saw Princess Aspen poke her head out from under the table, flashing long, messy black hair and those bright green eyes again. “What’s a marriage?”

Quickly, King Walrin’s relaxed expression hardened, his mouth thinning into a tight, angry line behind his beard. “It’s not tenacity. It’s idiocy. My only daughter, marry one of those beasts he calls  _ sons? _ Over my dead body.”

Feeling a sharp pang of guilt, Nexus quickly turned away, gripping the lab work papers in a tight fist. For a split second, he could’ve sworn he felt the king’s gaze on the back of his neck.

“Just a joke, your highness, apologies for it being a rather humorless one…”

“No apology needed. It is just a sore subject.”

“What’s a Germa?”

“It is nothing, Aspen, my silly little snowflake. Go back to working on your jigsaw puzzle…”

Nexus made his way to the door as the king continued talking to the administrator, who seemed to be leaning forward more and more with the weight of the papers. “I had a call for an urgent meeting with one of the former royal tutors...something concerning Aspen, but she’s been performing quite well in her studies, so I am unsure what the problem could possibly be.”

“I’m reading at an advanced level!” Aspen loudly volunteered.

“ _ Go back to your jigsaw puzzle.” _

Chuckling to himself, Nexus left the meeting room, pulling the door closed tight behind him by one of its heavy golden handles. Sitting against the wall in the empty hallway was a dark-skinned, exquisitely dressed woman, adorned from head to toe in furs and jewels, even up to a sparkling headpiece atop her fine silver hair. She sat ramrod straight, ankles crossed, and gave Nexus a disdainful look as he passed back. Nexus, getting a strange feeling from the woman, passed by quickly without making eye contact. If that was the woman the king was to meet with shortly, Nexus did not envy him one bit.

As he passed into the hub of the palace, sparkling with lights and loud with the bustle of staff, soldiers, and various cogs of Snøvanger Palace life, Nexus could smell dinner already being prepared from the kitchens on the lower level. Droves of people passed by, almost all of them chattering keenly to each other or just generally looking to be in a good mood - a warm atmosphere in comparison to the powerful winter storm that could be seen raging just above through the skylight. It had been a drastic departure from the austere life Nexus was accustomed to in Germa, and Nexus was still adjusting. Initially, he had not liked it at all, but more and more he had begun to come around to all the liveliness and personality the palace was home to.

Pausing to lean against the railing that overlooked the ground level below, Nexus looked again at the papers the administrator had given him. The rest of the profile data seemed unremarkable - female, just a few years younger than him, average height and weight. He found himself staring at the amber lead content of their body, engrossing himself in the number even as someone stood close by, leaning against the railing as well. “120 µg per liter...over what should be the fatal threshold…”

The person beside him let out a soft chuckle. “Maybe I’m just a medical marvel.”

Nexus turned his head so fast, he felt something pop. Right beside him was a short woman, wearing dark grey scrubs and a long-sleeved green shirt beneath. Her hands were gloved, and her long, dark brown hair was pulled back from a round, sweet face. Nexus couldn’t quite make out an eye color through all the long, dark lashes. The skin on her face and neck was smooth and light, but Nexus could faintly make out the mottled edges of discolored patches. The kind consistent with Amber Lead Syndrome.

Nexus tried to open his mouth, only then realizing it had been hanging open the entire time he was staring at this woman. When he could finally get his mouth working again - the joints in his jaw popping painfully as his mouth snapped shut - he said the stupidest thing he could’ve come up with to say to a complete stranger.

“Oh, you’re a marvel all right.”

“Daydreaming again?”

Nexus turned his head and saw Wintergreen had turned towards him, smiling tiredly at him from where she lay with her head on the pillow. Her hair was as dark and lovely as it had been that first day, even streaked with silver as it had become. The round face was no less sweet, but to Nexus’s despair, the mottled edges he had helped to disappear - for a time - were back with a vengeance, cutting clear and unnaturally white even against Wintergreen’s naturally pale skin.

“I’m trying to think of what our options are.” Not a lie - that had certainly been his intent when they’d first gotten into bed. There were the options for managing the disease that Wintergreen had utilized before Nexus had come into the picture, and then there was the original treatment he’d come up with, less than a year after he’d been given her lab work. Those couldn’t be ruled out. “There’s got to be a way to address this.”

Wintergreen’s tired smile slipped a bit, and he watched her face fall. “You did what you could. And you gave me longer than anyone else could have.” She rolled onto her back, staring up and away from Nexus. “We both accepted what would need to happen if there was a recurrence. You yourself told me -”

Nexus knew what he had told her, and he sat up even more stiffly as he shook his head. “That was so long ago, there has to be -”

Sounding hurt, Wintergreen cut him off. “I am going to die. We both knew there was no staving off the inevitable. That is life. Life is acknowledging that things are beyond your control sometimes - not treating those things like puzzles to be solved.”

For how soft her words were, each one felt like being stabbed - sharper than the would-be assailant from the other night. Setting the papers onto the bedside table, Nexus grasped Wintergreen’s hands in his own. They felt thin and boney against his palms. “You’re not a puzzle. You’re my wife. I  _ love _ you.”

Sighing gently, Wintergreen sat up slightly, hair falling in her face as she gave him a delicate smile. "You're a good husband, and a good man regardless of what other people say.”

Nexus’s mind temporarily wandered to the upsurge in angry finger-pointing at him over Aspen and Ichiji’s marriage arrangement.

“...But I could never shake the feeling that you don't love me as much as you loved the idea of being able to save me."

Nexus felt like an idiot for not seeing a remark like that coming, even as he held her hands all the more tightly. Wintergreen reserved her softest voice for the most painful observations - even as untrue as this one was. “Wh…” His brain struggled to process what she could have possibly meant by that. “Why...why would you think…”

“I’m not trying to hurt you,” Wintergreen assured him, her voice agonizingly gentle and sad, eyes gazing at him through the lashes. “I’m sure you think you do love me -”

“I  _ do _ love you!” Nexus couldn’t understand why his brain wasn’t following. Perhaps he was more tired than he thought, tucked into the warm bed, with its thick blankets and Wintergreen’s body heat. 

Undeterred, Wintergreen continued. “But you love problem-solving more than anything else in this world.”

“That’s not -”

Wintergreen pulled a hand away, and held up one finger. “Me, and the Amber Lead Syndrome.”

“That’s just -”

Another finger went up. “Your niece and nephews.”

A low blow, and an unfair one. “I promised my sister -”

“It doesn’t mean I’m wrong.” Wintergreen held up another finger. “Aspen.”

Temporarily confused, Nexus tilted his head as he looked at his wife. “Aspen?”

“The marriage arrangement, to Ichiji.” Her smile, which Nexus would not have thought could get any sadder, grew sadder still as she looked at him. “You and I have both read that marriage contract, front to back. Over and over. It’s airtight. Unless Ichiji dies, or somehow agrees of his own volition to release her from it, she is  _ going _ to marry him.”

“But he  _ could _ ,” Nexus argued in earnest, barely keeping up from one point to the next. It wasn’t problem-solving, in any of these cases. It was the matter of keeping promises - to his sister, to Wintergreen, to King Walrin and Aspen both. “The treatment for the boys, the matter of undoing modifications that were my own work -”

Wintergreen, sighing again, waved a hand. “You promised the king you would do your best to keep Aspen from being sold off to Germa. And you  _ did _ do your best; the Council’s actions are not your own. That’s a promise kept. You then went and promised Aspen you would get her out of the marriage, knowing full well from the start there was no way to deliver on that promise without resorting to extraordinary measures.”

“And what would you have me do in all of these cases?” Nexus was beginning to feel like his glass of water had been poured down his back, even as the bed felt cozy warm around him. “Let you die? Leave my nephews as monsters? Disregard Aspen entirely?”

“I  _ am _ going to die. I am asking you...to let me die.” 

Nexus said nothing, even as Wintergreen grasped at his hands - somehow holding him more firmly than he’d held her. Again, his brain didn’t register what she’d said to him. He had seen her lips moving, heard the words come out, watched the shine increasing steadily in her eyes, but none of it was making any sense at all. 

“I have no say in how you handle the issue with...your family. That predates me coming into your life. As for Aspen…”

Nexus felt his shoulders tensing, the aching muscles into his back all beginning to tighten.

“Your family is  _ here _ , Nexus. They’re only here because of that marriage arrangement. There’s a ring on her finger, she and Ichiji are being showcased  _ together. _ He is already being acknowledged in multiple circles as the future king of Hoarfrost. What you need to do is  _ stop _ getting her hopes up that there is any way out of this. You need to prepare her for reality. Or she’s not going to be ready as she’s being made to walk down the aisle in two years.”

“There’s a way to fix things.” Nexus’s brain answered, though the more it mulled over Wintergreen’s words, the sharper and deeper they cut at him. A peculiar anxiety bloomed beneath his skin, and he could feel his own eyes beginning to prickle and burn as his vision blurred. Was she right? Of course not - but his wife had never been wrong before. He couldn’t break his promises. Not any of them. “There’s a way to fix things. There is. I know there is.”

Smiling once again - the saddest smile he’d seen - Wintergreen sat up further still, leaning forward and planting a soft kiss on his cheek. She smelled like cedar and peppermint - the smell Nexus had grown so comfortable with beside him in bed. The smell of comfort, love, safety. And she was trying to tell him he needed to give that up?

“Not this time, my love. Not this time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- so I know amber lead is usually compared to asbestos, but since it's, y'know, _fictional_ , I decided to incorporate certain elements of mercury poisoning into the matter for story sake.


End file.
